The politics of Latvia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President holds a primarily ceremonial role as Head of State. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament, the Saeima. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Latvia a "flawed democracy" in 2019.
The Socialist Party of Latvia was formed in 1994, as a successor party to the Communist Party of Latvia, which was banned in 1991. In essence, the party is communist; according to the "programme of the party", the LSP was founded as an organization upholding socialist ideas after the 1991 events that the party describes as a 'counter-revolutionary bourgeois-nationalist coup'.
Indulis Emsis is a Latvian biologist and politician. He was Prime Minister of Latvia for ten months in 2004, the first Green politician to lead a country in the history of the world. He was Speaker of the Saeima, the Latvian parliament from 2006 to 2007. Emsis' political views are described as rather conservative, unusual for members of green parties around the world.
The Saeima is the parliament of the Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the popular vote. Elections are scheduled to be held once every four years, normally on the first Saturday of October. The most recent elections were held in October 2018.
The Constitution of Latvia, ratified on February 15, 1922, contains a provision regarding one of the reserve powers of the President of Latvia to initiate the dissolution of the parliament. According to Article 48-50 of the Constitution,
Inese Vaidere is a Latvian politician who currently serves as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
Tatjana Ždanoka is a Latvian politician and a Member of the European Parliament. She is co-chairwoman of the Latvian Russian Union and sits with the European Greens–European Free Alliance group.
Latvia does not recognize same-sex unions, either in the form of partnership or marriage. The Latvian Constitution prohibits the recognition of same-sex marriages.
The Constitution of Latvia is the fundamental law of the Republic of Latvia. Satversme is the oldest Eastern or Central European constitution still in force and the sixth oldest still-functioning republican basic law in the world. It was adopted, as it states itself in the text, by the people of Latvia, in their freely elected Constitutional Assembly of Latvia on 15 February 1922 and came into force on 7 November 1922. It was heavily influenced by Germany's Weimar Constitution and the Swiss Federal Constitution. The constitution establishes the main bodies of government ; it consists of 115 articles arranged in eight chapters.
The president of Latvia is head of state and commander-in-chief of the National Armed Forces of the Republic of Latvia.
Solvita Āboltiņa née Mellupe is a Latvian politician who was Speaker of the Saeima from 2010 until 2014.
Inta Feldmane is a Latvian politician. She is a member of the LPP/LC and a deputy of the 9th Saeima. She began her current term in parliament on November 16, 2006.
Karina Pētersone is a Latvian politician. She was the Minister of Culture of Latvia from 26 November 1998 to 7 November 2002. She is now a member of the LPP/LC and a deputy of the 9th Saeima. She began her current term in parliament on 7 November 2006.
Māris Kučinskis is a Latvian politician and former Prime Minister of Latvia.
Lelde Stumbre is a Latvian dramatist and politician. Author of many plays, she also wrote the screenplay to Lai tev labi klājas!, a 1995 TV series. She was a candidate for the Latvian parliament in 2011, but finished as the first runner up for her party in the Riga voting region. In 2014 Stumbre briefly served in the Saeima from 30 January to 20 March as a substitute for Einārs Cilinskis.
Inese Lībiņa-Egnere is a Latvian lawyer and politician representing the political party Unity. She was a member and Deputy Speaker of the 11th Saeima. Currently is the Deputy Speaker and the Chairperson of the National Security Committee of the 12th Saeima.
Ināra Mūrniece is a Latvian journalist and politician who is Speaker of the Saeima since 2014. She was re-elected as Speaker on 6 November 2018 by 44 votes to 32.
Lolita Čigāne is a Latvian politician. She was previously a journalist, public policy analyst, international consultant and chairperson of the Board of Transparency International Latvia. In 2010 she joined the centre-right Unity party. Čigāne was first elected to the 10th Saeima (parliament) in 2010. She served a full term as a Member of Parliament in the 11th Saeima (2011–2014), was the parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Finance in 2013-2014 and a member of 12th Saeima, serving also as the chair of the European Affairs Committee until November 2018. Currently she works as an international consultant in the issues of political finance, elections, election corruption, good governance and parliament affairs with organizations such as OSCE, European Commission, NDI and others, as well as visiting lecturer at Riga Graduate School of Law where she teaches EU law and integration and Stockholm School of Economics in Riga teaching political economy courses.
Dace Melbārde is a Latvian politician. She is a member of the National Alliance and had been the Latvian minister of culture since 2013 till 2019. In May 2019, representing political party National Alliance, she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament, where she joined European Conservatives and Reformists group.
Rasma Kārkliņa is a Latvian and American political scientist and politician. She worked as a professor of political science both in the United States and in Latvia. For two terms she was the Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she was also Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In 2010 she won a seat in the Saeima, affiliated with the New Unity party.
