Aigars Kalvītis (born 27 June 1966) is a Latvian businessman and a former politician who was the Prime Minister of Latvia from 2004 to 2007. Currently he is the president of

Latvian Ice Hockey Federation The Latvian Ice Hockey Federation ( lv, Latvijas Hokeja federācija), commonly abbreviated as LHF is the Sport governing body, governing body that oversees ice hockey in Latvia, including the Latvian Hockey Higher League, the Latvia women's nation ...

and the Chairman of the Board of Latvian gas company

Latvijas Gāze A/S Latvijas Gāze is a Latvian natural gas company, which deals in the importation and sale of natural gas. Latvijas Gāze is owned by Gazprom (34%), Marguerite Fund (28.97%), Uniper Ruhrgas International (18.26%) and Itera-Latvija (16%). ...

. He is the Chairman of the Council of Latvian

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

s company Tet.

Education

In 1984 Kalvītis graduated from Riga Secondary School No. 41. In 1992 he graduated from the Latvian University of Agriculture with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in economics and in 1995 he graduated with a

magister degree A magister degree (also magistar, female form: magistra; from la, magister, "teacher") is an academic degree used in various systems of higher education. The magister degree arose in medieval universities in Europe and was originally equal to th ...

in economics. In the same year he studied in the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

Political career

Political activities up to 2004

Kalvītis was one of the founders of People's Party of Latvia in 1997 and was first elected to Saeima, the Latvian parliament, in 1998. He served as the minister of agriculture from 1999 to 2000 and the minister of economics from 2000 to 2002. Kalvītis was reelected to Saeima and became the leader of the parliamentary faction of the People's Party in 2002.

Prime minister

On 2 December 2004, he became the Prime Minister of Latvia. He was the prime minister of Latvia until his resignation on 5 December 2007.

Kalvītis government

Kalvītis at first led a coalition government consisting of his own People's Party, the

New Era Party The New Era Party ( lv, Jaunais laiks, JL) was a centre-right political party in Latvia. Founded in 2002, the party merged with Civic Union and Society for Other Politics to form Unity in 2011. New Era was a member of the European People' ...

, the

Union of Greens and Farmers The Union of Greens and Farmers ( lv, Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība, ZZS) is an agrarian political alliance in Latvia. It is made up of the Latvian Farmers' Union, Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party, and For Latvia and Ventspils. It is p ...

and the

Latvia's First Party The Latvia's First Party ( lv, Latvijas Pirmā Partija) was a socially conservative, Christian-democratic right-wing political party in Latvia. It merged with Latvian Way to form Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way in 2007. It was founded on 2 ...

. In April 2006, the

left the government and Kalvītis led a minority coalition government consisting of the other three parties. His governing coalition retained power in the 7 October 2006

parliamentary election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, winning a slight majority of seats and becoming the first government since Latvian independence in 1991 to be re-elected. It consisted of the People's Party,

, the Latvia First/Latvian Way Party, and

For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK ( lv, Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK, abbreviated to TB/LNNK) was a free-market, national conservative political party in Latvia. In 2011, it dissolved and merged into the National Alliance. The party was founded ...

was added after the 2006 elections, and strengthened the coalition's majority to 59 of the 100 seats. Meanwhile, the People's Party became the largest party in Parliament. Kalvītis became its chairman.

Retirement from politics

On 7 November 2007, Kalvītis announced that he would step down as prime minister on 5 December, after encountering widespread opposition to his dismissal of the head of the anti-corruption bureau, Aleksejs Loskutovs, in the previous month. He accordingly met with President

Valdis Zatlers Valdis Zatlers (born 22 March 1955) is a Latvian politician and former physician who served as the seventh president of Latvia from 2007 to 2011. He won the Latvian presidential election of 31 May 2007. He became President of Latvia on 8 July 2 ...

on 5 December and announced his resignation, along with that of his government. According to Kalvītis, speaking on television on the same day, this was necessary to "cool down hot heads". Kalvītis remained in office in a caretaker capacity until the appointment of his successor

Ivars Godmanis Ivars Godmanis (born 27 November 1951) is a Latvian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Latvia from 1990 to 1993 and again from 2007 to 2009. He was the first Prime Minister of Latvia after the country restored its independence from t ...

. He decided to leave politics altogether on 1 April 2009, by putting down his member of Saeima mandate.

Business career

From 1992 to 1998, he was a manager and Chairman of the Board of various agriculture related businesses. And after his political career he has been Chairman of the Council of various well-known companies like Tet (2009),

Latvijas Balzams Amber Latvijas Balzams ( en, Latvian Balsam) is the largest alcoholic beverage producer in the Baltic states headquartered in Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabi ...

(2009-2015), and Chairman of the Board of enterprises like Hockey Club Dinamo Riga (2010-2015), the operator of Latvian

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

infrastructure Conexus Baltic Grid (2017) and

(2015). He became the president of the

in October 2016, to succeed Kirovs Lipmans.

Personal life

His wife is Kristīne Kalvīte. He has three sons Kārlis, Roberts and Rūdolfs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalvitis, Aigars 1966 births Living people Businesspeople from Riga People's Party (Latvia) politicians Prime Ministers of Latvia Ministers of Economics of Latvia Ministers of Agriculture of Latvia Deputies of the 7th Saeima Deputies of the 8th Saeima Deputies of the 9th Saeima Ice hockey people from Latvia Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies alumni Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class Politicians from Riga