Lawmakers in Latvia have chosen Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics as the country’s new president, making him the first openly gay head of state in the European Union.
At the time, he pledged to fight for a legal framework for same-sex marriage, which remains illegal in Latvia.
The nation of about 1.9 million people ranks among the worst places in Europe to be an LGBTI citizen in terms of legal rights, according to an indexThe president in Latvia holds a largely ceremonial role and is elected by members of its 100-seat parliament. Rinkevics received 52 of a possible 87 votes in a runoff round of voting on Wednesday — one more than required to win the post. His closest rival, businessman Uldis Pilens, got 25 votes. The populist For Stability party, which is associated with Latvia’s Russian-speaking minority, voted against both finalists.
In a news conference after the votes were tallied, he said there would be “no surprises, no changes” in Riga’s support for Kyiv, and its backing of the E.U. and NATO “as the cornerstones of our foreign policy,”
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Latvia's Parliament elects top diplomat Edgars Rinkevics as new presidentAs foreign minister, Rinkevics has enjoyed high popularity among Latvians due to his hard stance toward neighbouring Russia during the conflict in Ukraine.
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