Saeima approves Levits as new Latvian president

RIGA - Saeima today voted in European Court of Justice Judge Egils Levits as the new president of Latvia.

61 MPs voted for Levits, who was the candidate of the ruling coalition.

Meanwhile, the other candidates running for president, Ombudsman Juris Jansons and MP Didzis Smits, received eight and 24 votes respectively.

Levits has graduated from the University of Hamburg. In the 1990s he served as the Latvian ambassador to Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary, as well as vice prime minister and justice minister. He has also headed the Constitutional Rights Commission under the auspices of the Latvian president’s office.

He served as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights from 1995 to 2004, and was first appointed as a European Court of Justice judge in 2004. He was re-appointed to the office in 2006 and 2012.