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 2022.
The Union of Greens and Farmers is an agrarian political alliance in Latvia. It is made up of the Latvian Farmers' Union, Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party, and For Latvia and Ventspils.
Artis Pabriks is a Latvian politician. Since January 2019 he has been the Minister for Defence and Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia. From 2014 to 2018, he was a Member of the European Parliament.
Latvia has recognised civil unions since 1 July 2024. On 9 November 2023, the Saeima passed legislation establishing same-sex civil unions conferring similar rights and obligations as marriage with the exception of adoption and inheritance rights. The bill was signed into law by President Edgars Rinkēvičs in January 2024, and took effect on 1 July 2024. This followed a ruling from the Constitutional Court of Latvia on 12 November 2020 that the Latvian Constitution entitles same-sex couples to receive the same benefits and protections afforded by Latvian law to married opposite-sex couples, and gave the Saeima until 1 June 2022 to enact a law protecting same-sex couples. In December 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that should the Saeima fail to pass civil union legislation before the 1 June 2022 deadline, same-sex couples may apply to a court to have their relationship recognized. The Saeima failed to meet this deadline, and the first same-sex union was recognized by the Administrative District Court on 30 May 2022.
Andris Šķēle is a Latvian former politician and business oligarch. He served two terms as Prime Minister of Latvia from 1995 to 1997, and again from 1999 to 2000.
Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš is a Latvian American politician who served as the prime minister of Latvia from 2019 until 2023. A linguist and businessman by profession, he previously served as Latvia's minister of Economics and a Member of the European Parliament. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, to parents who had left Latvia during the Soviet occupation, he was active in the American Latvian community throughout his youth.
Parliamentary elections were held in Latvia on 6 October 2018. Following the elections, a coalition government was formed by Who owns the state?, the New Conservative Party, Development/For!, the National Alliance and New Unity. Despite being from the smallest elected party, Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš of New Unity was chosen as prime minister.
Unity is a liberal-conservative political party in Latvia. It is a member of the New Unity alliance and is positioned on the centre-right on the political spectrum. Since 2017, its chairman of the Main Board has been the former Minister for Economics of Latvia, Arvils Ašeradens, who succeeded former European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.
Māris Kučinskis is a Latvian politician, who served as the prime minister of Latvia, from 2016 to 2019.
The New Unity is a centre-right political alliance in Latvia. Its members are Unity and four other regional parties, and it is orientated towards liberal-conservatism and liberalism.
Edgars Rinkēvičs is a Latvian public official and politician serving as the 11th and current president of Latvia since July 2023. He previously served as the minister of foreign affairs of Latvia from 2011 to 2023, and head of the Chancery of the President of Latvia as state secretary of the Ministry of Defence, as well as a deputy of the Saeima.
Laimdota Straujuma is a Latvian economist who was the prime minister of Latvia from January 2014 to February 2016. Before her tenure as prime minister, she served as the minister of Agriculture from 2011 to 2014. She was the first woman to serve as the head of government of the country. After her resignation on 7 December 2015, she announced her intention to resume a seat in the Saeima.
Jānis Bordāns is a Latvian politician and lawyer, the Deputy Prime Minister and the former Minister of Justice of the Republic of Latvia from 2019 to 2022, and previously from 2012 to 2014.
The First Straujuma cabinet was the government of Latvia from 22 January to 5 November 2014. It was the first government to be led by Laimdota Straujuma, who was Prime Minister between 2014 and 2016. It took office on 22 January 2014, after the resignation of Valdis Dombrovskis. It was abolished on November 5 the same year at the formation of the Second Straujuma cabinet.
The second Yatsenyuk government was created in Ukraine after the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election. On 2 December 2014, 288 members of the Ukrainian parliament approved the composition of the cabinet. The Government was backed by Petro Poroshenko Bloc, People's Front, Self Reliance, Fatherland and Radical Party.
Jānis Reirs is a Latvian politician who served as Minister of Finance in the first Kariņš cabinet from 2019 until 2022, as well as Minister for Welfare in the Kučinskis cabinet from 2016 until 2019 and Minister of Finance in the second Straujuma cabinet.
Dace Melbārde is a Latvian politician. She is a member of New Unity, having defected from the National Alliance in 2022 and was the Latvian minister of culture from 2013 to 2019. In May 2019, representing the political party National Alliance, she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament, where she joined the European Conservatives and Reformists group.
Aldis Gobzems is a Latvian politician and lawyer. He first rose to prominence as a lawyer who represented victims of the 2013 Zolitūde shopping centre roof collapse, and was the prime ministerial candidate for the Who Owns the State? party in the 2018 Latvian parliamentary elections.
The first Krišjānis Kariņš' cabinet was the 40th government of Latvia, sworn in on 23 January 2019 after Krišjānis Kariņš was proposed as Prime Minister by President Raimonds Vējonis and elected by the Saeima and working until 14 December 2022, when Saeima passed a motion of confidence in the Second Kariņš' cabinet.
Evika Siliņa is a Latvian lawyer and politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Latvia since 15 September 2023. From 2022 to 2023, she served as Minister of Welfare in the second cabinet of prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš. She is a member of the Unity political party, and the second female head of government of Latvia.
