Andris Šķēle

Andris Šķēle
Prime Minister of Latvia
In office 21 December 1995 – 6 August 1997
President	Guntis Ulmanis
Preceded by	Māris Gailis
Succeeded by	Guntars Krasts
Prime Minister of Latvia
In office 16 July 1999 – 5 May 2000
President	Guntis Ulmanis Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
Preceded by	Vilis Krištopans
Succeeded by	Andris Bērziņš
Personal details
Born	(1958-01-16) 16 January 1958 Ape, Latvia
Political party	Tautas partija (1998–2011)
Alma mater	Latvia University of Agriculture

Andris Šķēle (born 16 January 1958 in Ape)^[1] is a Latvian politician and Business oligarch. He has 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.^[2]

Political career

Independent Prime Minister

In 1995, after the parliamentary elections of 6th Saeima political parties were incapable of creating a coalition government for a while, thus Šķēle was presented as an independent candidate for the position of the Prime Minister. The Šķēle cabinet was passed by Parliament on 21 September 1995 and worked until early 1997, when Šķēle resigned after he had lost support from the Parliament. Šķēle created a new cabinet that took office on 13 February 1997 and worked until 7 August 1997.

People's Party

In 1998, before the parliamentary elections of 7th Saeima, Tautas partija with Šķēle as its chairman was founded. It described itself as a conservative party. It managed to win the elections, by winning 24 out of 100 seats in the parliament, yet other parties managed to form a coalition government without Tautas partija.

The cabinet, led by Vilis Krištopans, fell and on 16 July 1999 already the third Šķēle cabinet took office, working until 5 May 2000.

In 2002 Šķēle was elected as a member of the parliament. In 2003, however, he resigned. Šķēle announced retirement from politics, but remained, as he stated, "ordinary member" of the People's Party and was thought to have a considerable behind-the-scene influence in the party.

Return to politics

In October 2009, when Tautas partija found itself in a deep crisis, Šķēle returned to politics as the chairman of the party. On March 2010 Tautas partija resigned from government. In October 2010 Šķēle was elected as a member of the parliament from the party alliance Par Labu Latviju, whose member Tautas partija was. To avoid repaying a Ls1 million campaign donation, the party was disbanded by the decision of its Congress on July 9, 2011.^[3] Šķēle didn't take part in the 2011 parliamentary elections.

Alleged involvement in corruption scandals

Andris Šķēle has often been associated with various corruption scandals yet he himself has never been prosecuted, with his involvement in the cases officially limited as a witness.

Private life

Andris Šķēle is one of the wealthiest people in Latvia. The Baltic Times newspaper ranks him as the 15th wealthiest person in Baltic states, with a net worth of about 60 million euros.

References