Māris Grīnblats (5 January 1955 – 14 March 2021) was a

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n politician and a member of the political party

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 ...

(TB/LNNK).

Early life

Grīnblats was born on 5 January 1955 in

Kuldīga Kuldīga () (german: Goldingen) is a town in the Courland region of Latvia, in the western part of the country. It is the center of Kuldīga Municipality with a population of approximately 13,500. Kuldīga was first mentioned in 1242. It joine ...

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Latvian SSR), also known as Soviet Latvia or simply Latvia, was a federated republic within the Soviet Union, and formally one of its 16 (later 15) constituent republics. The Latvian Soviet Socialist Rep ...

. From 1977 to 1982 he studied and graduated from the LVU Department of Philosophy. From 1980 to 1983, he was a sociologist of various departments of Latvian universities. From 1988 Grīnblats was a member of the

Madona Madona (; german: Modohn) is a town with town rights in the Vidzeme region of Latvia and is the center of the Madona municipality. History The surrounding area of Madona had been populated in earlier times, which is confirmed by discoveries ...

branch of the

Latvian People's Front The Popular Front of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Tautas fronte) was a political organisation in Latvia in the late 1980s and early 1990s which led Latvia to its independence from the Soviet Union. It was similar to the Popular Front of Estonia and the ...

(LTF), later he became its chairman. From 1989 to 1990 he was a member of the LTF Council. Grīnblats participated in the development of the Citizens' Congress of the Republic of Latvia, and in 1990 he was elected a delegate of the Citizens' Congress, where he was the Deputy Chairman of the Latvian Committee of the Citizens' Congress. From 1991 to 1993, he was chairman of the Citizens' Congress and a leader of the

18th November Union 18 (eighteen) is the natural number following 17 and preceding 19. In mathematics * Eighteen is a composite number, its divisors being 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9. Three of these divisors (3, 6 and 9) add up to 18, hence 18 is a semiperfect number. ...

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. After the 1995 parliamentary election, Grīnblats, as leader of the centre-right 'National Bloc' coalition formed around TB, was asked to become

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

, but, on 23 November, he failed to get the confidence of the

Saeima The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the po ...

: falling short by one vote. Instead, he became Minister for Education and Science and a

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

Andris Šķēle Andris Šķēle (born 16 January 1958) is a Latvian former politician and business oligarch. He served two terms as Prime Minister of Latvia from 21 December 1995 to 7 August 1997, and from 16 July 1999 to 5 May 2000. Early life Šķēle gra ...

. During Grīnblats leadership of TB, it merged with

Latvian National Independence Movement The Latvian National Independence Movement ( lv, Latvijas Nacionālās Neatkarības Kustība, LNNK) was a political organization in Latvia from 1988 until 1997. It formed in 1988 as the radical wing of Latvian nationalist movement. Unlike the main ...

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

, which he remained in the 9th Saeima. He ran in the

2010 Latvian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Latvia on 2 October 2010. It was the first parliamentary election to be held in Latvia since the beginning of the economic crisis during which Latvia had experienced one of the deepest recessions in the world. ...

as a member of the National Alliance list, but was not elected. Since then, he was working as a consultant of the party faction in the Saeima. He died in March 2021.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grinblats, Maris 1955 births 2021 deaths People from Kuldīga Latvian independence activists University of Latvia alumni For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK politicians Ministers of Education and Science of Latvia Deputies of the 5th Saeima Deputies of the 6th Saeima Deputies of the 7th Saeima Deputies of the 8th Saeima Deputies of the 9th Saeima