Māris Grīnblats

Māris Grīnblats

Māris Grīnblats (born 5 January 1955 in Kuldīga, Latvia) is a Latvian politician for For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (TB/LNNK).

Grīnblats was a member of the Citizens' Congress, and a leader of the 18th November Union that emerged from it. He became the founding leader of For Fatherland and Freedom (TB), a party that was created from 18th November Union, in 1993.^[1] After the 1995 parliamentary election, Grīnblats, as leader of the centre-right 'National Bloc' coalition formed around TB, was asked to become Prime Minister, but, on 23 November, he failed to get the confidence of the Saeima: falling short by one vote.^[2] Instead, he became Minister for Education and Science and a Deputy Prime Minister to Andris Šķēle.^[3]

During Grīnblats leadership of TB, it merged with Latvian National Independence Movement to form the TB/LNNK, and Grīnblats became the party's first chairman. He remained in that position until 2002, at the beginning of the 8th Saeima, when he became President of the TB/LNNK's faction in the national legislature, the Saeima, which he remained in the 9th Saeima.^[1]

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b} Ortiz de Zárate, Roberto (2009). "Leaders of Latvia". http://www.terra.es/personal2/monolith/latvia.htm. Retrieved 30 July 2010. 
2. ^ Dawisha, Karen; Parrott, Bruce (1997). The Consolidation of Democracy in East-Central Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 282. ISBN 9780521599382. 
3. ^ Day, Alan John; East, Roger; Thomas, Richard (2002). A political and Economic Dictionary of Eastern Europe. London: Routledge. p. 213. ISBN 9781857430639. 

Party political offices
New title Party created by merger of TB and LNNK	Chairman of For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK 1997 – 2002	Succeeded by Jānis Straume

Persondata
Name	Grinblats, Maris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1955
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death