Raimonds Vejonis - who?

 

Well Gentle Reader its been an interesting day in the world of Latvian politics.

As I wrote yesterday, today was the Latvian 2015 Presidential Election and the streets of Riga were awash with people as the polling booths filled with smiling, expectant voters taking part in the completely transparent democratic process.

NOT!!!!!

As I mentioned yesterday, the Latvian people do not decide who the President of their country will be. That is left up to the 100 strong Saeima, they and only they get to decide who Latvia's Head of State will be.

The winner, with an amazing 55 votes after the FIFTH ballot, was Raimonds Vejonis, a man a colleague of mine described as "too ugly and too stupid to be president".

So what do we know about the man who will lead his nation for the next 4 years.

Born in Pskov Oblat, Russia in 1966, Raimonds worked as a Biology teacher after getting his masters from the University of Latvia. He entered politics in the Madona region of Latvia. Now he lives in the town of Ogre.

   

 (Ogre the town.....not Ogre as in Shrek. Mind you there is a similarity)

He is a member of the Latvian Green party and served as Environment Minister and Minister of Defence in the Latvian coalition government.

Apparently when he found out about his victory in the Presidential election he said "okay, I must take a drink first."

#latvia #raimondsvejonis #ogre