Māris Grīnblats

Māris Grīnblats
Deputy of the Saeima
Personal details
Born	5 January 1955 Kuldīga, Latvian SSR
Political party	For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK
Alma mater	University of Latvia

Māris Grīnblats (born 5 January 1955 in Kuldīga, Soviet Union) 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 18 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. Ortiz de Zárate, Roberto (2009). "Leaders of Latvia". 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 978-0-521-59938-2.
3. Day, Alan John; East, Roger; Thomas, Richard (2002). A political and Economic Dictionary of Eastern Europe. London: Routledge. p. 213. ISBN 978-1-85743-063-9.