Solvita Āboltiņa
Solvita Āboltiņa Mellupe is a Latvian politician who was Speaker of the Saeima from 2010 until 2014.Early life
She graduated from Riga Secondary School No. 5, a German language immersion school in 1981, and from the Faculty of Law at the Latvian State University in 1986.Political career
She is the leader of Unity, Latvia's largest centre-right party and partner in the current coalition government. Despite being the leader of the largest governing party, she has never been the Prime Minister of Latvia. She has been a deputy of the Saeima since November 7, 2006. In November 2014 after a parliamentary election she was replaced as the speaker and appointed chairwoman of the National Security Committee of the Saeima. She caused controversy after being 'struck off' the Unity list of candidates by electors at the 2014 election. Such an outcome is possible for any candidate under Latvia's method of proportional representation. As a result, she was not returned as a member of the Saeima and elected Unity member Jānis Junkurs forfeited his mandate to allow the party President to continue to sit in parliament.Foreign Honours
