EU’s First Openly Gay Head of State Elected by Latvian Assembly
- Rinkevics, Latvia’s long-time foreign minister, gets top job
- Selection could upend Karins’s six-month old coalition
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Latvia’s parliament elected long-time Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics as the Baltic nation’s new president, making him the European Union’s first openly gay head of state.
Fifty-two lawmakers in the 100-seat legislature in Riga voted for Rinkevics, who has served as Latvia’s top envoy for almost 12 years, to succeed President Egils Levits. Appointed by Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’s ruling party earlier this month, Rinkevics has been a consistent advocate for supporting Ukraine and a strident critic of the Kremlin.