A Respected Person in Latvia - Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
A Respected Person in Latvia - Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth President of Latvia and the first female President of Latvia. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected for a second term in 2003. While she was a President she was instrumental in achieving membership in the Europe Union and NATO for Latvia. She is also a professor and interdisciplinary scholar, having published eleven books and numerous articles, essays and book chapters.
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga was born in Riga, Latvia in 1937. At the end of 1944 her parents escaped to Nazi, Germany where she received her first education in Latvian primary school at a refugee camp.Then her family moved to Casablanca in French Morocco in 1949. In Morocco she attended French primary school. After primary school she went to high school but completed it in Toronto, Canada as her family moved there in 1954. Afterwards Vaira Vīķe attended Victoria College part of the Univeristy of Toronto, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1958 and a Master of Arts in 1960, in psychology. In 1958, being fluent in English, French, Latvian, Spanish and German, she worked as a translator. Furthermore, she has worked in some univeristies as professor.
In 1998 she returned to Latvia where she led the Latvian Institute which handles Latvia’s promotion overseas. A year later in 1999 when Saeima(the Latvian Parliament) couldn’t agree about a candidate for the presidency, one thing was clear that they required someone who wasn’t involved with any of parties. As a result, Saeima nominated and elected Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga for the role of President of Latvia. In her two terms of presidency she was very popular among Latvain inhabitants and she was mainly active in foreign policy. As I said before she played a very important part in Latvia’s joining the Europe Union and NATO. After her presidency she is still actively taking part in foreign policy.
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is such an inspiring women for all Latvians. A lot of people still love and admire her for all the effort and hard work that she has put in for everyone. All her speeches as a president were deeply patriotic, confident and motivational. By the way, she has recently celebrated her 80th birthday.
