Guntis Ulmanis | |
|---|---|
 Ulmanis in 2010 | |
| 5th President of Latvia | |
| In office 7 July 1993 – 7 July 1999 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Position re-established Kārlis Ulmanis (1941) |
| Succeeded by | Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1939-09-13)13 September 1939 (age 86) Riga, Latvia |
| Political party | Latvian Farmers' Union |
| Spouse | Aina Ulmane |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Latvia |
| Signature |  |
Guntis Ulmanis (born 13 September 1939) is a Latvian politician and the fifthPresident of Latvia from 1993 to 1999.[1]
Guntis Ulmanis was born inRiga on 13 September 1939. His great uncleKārlis Ulmanis was one of the most prominent Latvian politicians during the interwar period, in 1934 he established authoritarian regime and subsequently adopted title of the president of Latvia. In 1941 following theSoviet occupation, Guntis Ulmanis and his family weredeported toKrasnoyarsk Krai,Siberia,Russian SFSR.[2]
In 1946, they returned to Latvia, but were not allowed to settle inRiga, so they stayed atĒdole in theKuldīga area of theLatvian SSR.
In 1949, the remainder of the Ulmanis family was supposed to be deported in the upcomingMarch deportation, but Guntis Ulmanis was able to avoid that fate, as his mother remarried and his surname was changed to Rumpītis.[3] In 1955 upon receiving his first passport Ulmanis chose to use his birth surname.[4]
They then moved toJūrmala, where he attended school. After graduating, he entered the economic faculty of theLatvian State University.
After completing his studies in theuniversity in 1963, he was drafted into theSoviet army, where he served for two years. In 1965 he joined theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union. He began working as an economist at a construction site and was later promoted totram andtrolleybusadministrator in Riga.
He was then advanced to the position of deputy chairman of the planning committee of the Riga Executive Committee (city government). However, his family ties with PresidentUlmanis were discovered and he was sacked in 1971.
He then worked at lower positions in the Riga municipal service system. For some time he worked as a teacher ofconstruction economics at theRiga Polytechnical Institute and ofeconomic planning at theLatvian State University.
In 1989, during theSinging Revolution, Guntis Rumpītis quit the Communist Party and returned to using his original surname – Ulmanis. In 1992, he was appointed Council Member of theNational Bank of Latvia.
He also joined theLatvian Farmers' Union, his great-uncle's party, the same year. In 1993, following the first elections to theSaeima in 62 years, he was elected as the 5thPresident of Latvia (the first since the full restoration of independence in 1991). In the first round of the indirect election, he finished third (afterGunārs Meierovics andAivars Jerumanis), but won in the runoff as Meierovics quit the race.
As President, Guntis Ulmanis focused on foreign policy, building relations with international and regional organizations, as well as other countries.[5] A major achievement was the conclusion of the Latvian-Russian treaty on the withdrawal ofRussian Armed Forces from Latvia.
During his presidency, Latvia joined theCouncil of Europe and sent its application to theEuropean Union. He announced amoratorium on the death penalty, in accordance with the norms of the European Council.
In 1996, he was re-elected in the first round of elections, defeating Saeima speakerIlga Kreituse,Imants Liepa and formerCommunist Party chairmanAlfrēds Rubiks, who was in jail at the time.
In 1998 President Ulmanis actively supported amendments to theCitizenship law, that would allow all people born after 21 August 1991 to obtain citizenship and would eliminate so-called "naturalization limits" (in which only a limited number of non-citizenship could receive citizenship within a given year). However, he was forced to send the law project on a referendum, after 36 nationalistic deputies, opposed to the amendment petitioned him to do so. He then actively and successfully campaigned for the adoption of the amendments by the population.
Guntis Ulmanis' term finished in 1999 and he was succeeded byVaira Vīķe-Freiberga. He retired from politics but became a social activist, founding the Guntis Ulmanis Fund, organizing the2006 IIHF World Championship inRiga and heading theRiga Castle reconstruction council.[6]
2010 marked a return to big politics for Guntis Ulmanis. He became the chairman of the newly created party allianceFor a Good Latvia, which was composed of thePeople's Party andLatvia's First Party/Latvian Way.[7] The alliance won only 8 seats in the October 2010parliamentary election.
However, Ulmanis became a Saeima deputy. In 2011 he announced he did not want to run for another term as a deputy in the2011 election. He, therefore, ceased being a deputy in November 2011, after the 11th Saeima was inaugurated.
Guntis Ulmanis has been married to Aina Ulmane (maiden name Štelce) since 1962.[8] They have two children: Guntra (b. 1963) and Alvils (b. 1966) and three grandchildren. In his spare time, Ulmanis enjoys reading history books and memoirs, playingtennis,basketball andvolleyball. He is known to also spend summers in his home inSmārde Parish.[9]
He has written two autobiographies:No tevis jau neprasa daudz (Not much is required from you yet) (1995) andMans prezidenta laiks (My time as President) (1999).
He is a member of the international advisory council of theVictims of Communism Memorial Foundation.[10]
On 21 September 2015 he becameCEO of the hockey clubDinamo Riga after the previous CEOAigars Kalvītis stepped down to take a CEO position in the companyLatvijas Gāze.[11]
Latvia:
Commander Grand Cross with Chain of theOrder of the Three Stars[12]
Denmark:
Knight of theOrder of the Elephant (18 March 1997) -SeeLatvian Knights of the Order of the Elephant
Estonia:
Collar of theOrder of the Cross of Terra Mariana (23 October 1996)[13]
Germany:
Grand Cross Special Class of theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Iceland:
Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of the Falcon (8 June 1998)[14]
Norway:
Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of St. Olav
Poland:
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of Latvia 1991 – 1999 | Succeeded by |
| Postholders |  | |
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| Elections | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
