Kazaks elected President of the Bank of Latvia

RIGA - The Saeima today re-elected Martins Kazaks as the President of the Bank of Latvia today with the help of opposition votes.

Kazaks was elected with 67 votes to 18, with four abstentions. Kazaks was supported by all present lawmakers from the New Unity and Progressives and almost all lawmakers from the United List with the exception of Didzis Smits who voted against Kazaks.

Kazaks also was supported by the National Alliance's lawmakers and some members of the Union of Greens and Farmers. In the vote, Janis Vucans from Greens/Farmers voted against, while three Greens/Farmers lawmakers - Liga Klavina, Gunars Kutris and Harijs Rokpelnis - abstained.

Lawmakers from Stability party and Latvia First voted against Kazaks.

Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity) in a tweet congratulated Kazaks on his re-election as President of the central bank and reminded that the institution he heads plays a key role in ensuring the country's financial stability, promoting economic development and strengthening confidence both at home and internationally. "Good luck to continue to steer Latvia's financial policy with professionalism and clarity, strengthening our economic security and sustainable growth!" Silina said.

This was the second attempt to elect the president of the Bank of Latvia. In the first attempt last December, three candidates were nominated for the post of the Bank of Latvia's President - Kazaks, Reinis Berzins, Chairman of the Board of the Development Finance Institution Altum (Altum) and Pavels Kuzmins of the opposition party Stability.

Kazaks was nominated for a second term as the President of the Bank of Latvia by New Unity and Progressives. At that time, he was blocked by the Union of Greens and Farmers Union (Greens/Farmers), which was part of the coalition, and put forward its own candidate, Berzins. The opposition parties were not ready to vote for Kazaks at the time, and in the end all the coalition partners withdrew their candidates, saying they would try to agree on a single but different candidate.

In the second attempt, the ruling coalition had initially decided to agree on one single candidate and announced that the candidate would be Santa Purgaile, Deputy President of the Bank of Latvia. Meanwhile, the opposition United List and the National Alliance nominated Kazaks for the presidency.

However, a few days later, the ruling coalition Greens/Farmers refused to support Purgaile and, upon learning of this, she withdrew her candidacy, while immediately afterwards New Unity and Progressives announced that they would support the opposition candidate Kazaks.

Kazaks holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Latvia, a Diploma in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a Master's degree in Economics and a PhD in Economics from the University of London.

From 2005, Kazaks was Chief Economist in Latvia and Chief Macroeconomic Analyst in the Baltics at Swedbank, and from 2010 to August 2018, Deputy Chief Economist, Chief Economist, Swedbank Latvia and Head of Macroeconomic Research, Baltic Countries, Swedbank Group.

Kazaks has been a member of the Supervisory Council of the Bank of Latvia since August 2018, and in December 2019, the Saeima elected him President of the Bank of Latvia with 76 votes.