Edvards Smiltēns
Latvian politician (born 1984)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edvards Smiltēns (born 18 September 1984) is a Latvian politician. He was Speaker of the Saeima from 2022 to 2023.[1]
Edgars Rinkēvičs
Evika Siliņa
Edvards Smiltēns | |
|---|---|
Smiltēns in 2022 | |
| 12th Speaker of the Saeima | |
| In office 1 November 2022 – 20 September 2023 | |
| President | Egils Levits Edgars Rinkēvičs |
| Prime Minister | Krišjānis Kariņš Evika Siliņa |
| Preceded by | Ināra Mūrniece |
| Succeeded by | Daiga Mieriņa |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 18 September 1984 |
| Party | United List |
| Children | 1 son |
Early life and education
Smiltēns was born in 1984 in Riga, Latvia.[2] He received his early education from Riga French Lyceum.[2] Later, he attended the University of Latvia, where he earned a bachelor's degree in social sciences in law.[2]
Career
In November 2010, Smiltēns was elected as a member of the Saeima.[3]
In 2014, he stood as a candidate for the Saeima elections, but was not elected. In December, he was confirmed as Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Science, a position he held until March 2016.[4]
In the summer of 2017, when the party "Unity" was going through a crisis, Smiltēns was nominated as one of the contenders for the position of the party leader, but on 19 August, he announced that he was leaving the party and its Saeima faction.[5]
In November 2022, Smiltēns was elected as the Speaker of the Saeima.[6] Due to connection with the new government in Latvia and United List remained in opposition, in 20 September 2023, Edvards Smiltēns loses the chair of the Speaker of the Saeima and his successor is Daiga Mieriņa.[7][8][9] But since then he's now Secretary of the Saeima.[10]
