Latvia’s Parliament elects popular Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics as new president

By JARI TANNER
Associated Press

HELSINKI (AP) — Latvian lawmakers have picked the Baltic country’s long-serving and popular foreign minister as its new head of state in a tight vote. The 100-seat Saeima legislature elected Edgars Rinkevics, the country’s top diplomat since 2011, as president to serve for a four-year term. He received 52 votes, one vote more than required to win the race. Incumbent Egils Levits, Latvia’s head of state since 2019, didn’t seek reelection. Rinkevics is the first openly gay president in the Baltic nations — all former Soviet republics where attitudes to sexual minorities have been less tolerant than in western Europe.