Latvia’s new president will be lawmaker and former Unibanka head Andris Bērziņš, who defeated incumbent Valdis Zatlers in a Saeima vote June 2.

The 66-year-old Bērziņš, who was nominated by five members of the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienību), won 53 votes on the second ballot. He will take office in July, becoming Latvia’s fourth president since the country regained independence in 1991.

Zatlers, who was elected by the Saeima in 2007, apparently ruined his chances of re-election after he announced May 28 that he was initiating dismissal of the parliament. A national referendum on the dissolving the 10th Saeima is scheduled July 23.

The incumbent president was nominated for re-election by the centrist Unity (Vienotība) coalition, which controls 33 seats in the 100-member Saeima. On the first ballot, Zatlers also was assured eight votes from the right-wing National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība “Visu Latvijai!” – “Tēvzemei un Brīvībai/LNNK”).

On the first ballot, Bērziņš received 50 votes in favor and Zatlers got 43 in favor. On the second ballot, Bērziņš earned 53 votes and Zatlers got 41. Members of parliament voted in secret.

Bērziņš was born in 1944. He graduated from the State University of Latvia in 1988 with a degree in industrial planning. From 1993-2004, Bērziņš was president of Unibanka, which became the Swedish-controlled SEB.

Bērziņš has been criticized by some observers as similar to the oligarchs that Zatlers has targeted in his effort to dismiss the parliament. The new president’s income declaration includes more than EUR 2.1 million in an account in SEB.

This year’s “Supertalka” at the Latvian center Gaŗezers in south central Michigan could use some extra help after strong winds uprooted dozens of trees and damaged several buildings during the late afternoon of May 29, according to administrators.

Gaŗezers, located in St. Joseph County about 5 miles (8 kilometers) west of Three Rivers, Mich., is in an area that was hit by severe storms, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) office for northern Indiana. An EF1 tornado, with winds ranging from 94-104 mph, is confirmed to have touched down north of Three Rivers, but no report has been made that it might earlier have hit Gaŗezers.

However, the same storm that spawned the tornado appears to have caused the damage to the Latvian property.

The storm began about 4 p.m. local time, Māra Kore, the information and development director for Gaŗezers, told Latvians Online in an email.

“The storm came up quickly,” she said, “but it also passed very fast.”

No injuries were reported at Gaŗezers, Kore said, in part because many people who might have been at the center were attending the American Latvian Association’s Sports Championship in Cleveland, Ohio, or a large church confirmation ceremony in Indianapolis.

Weather service and emergency management officials conducted a damage assessment in the area on May 30. They found that straight line winds were responsible for felling hundreds of trees beginning in an area just north of Long Lake (where Gaŗezers is located), according to the NWS.

Many homes in the area were damaged by falling trees, while the wind also blew shingles off roofs. The Latvian-owned Atbalsis resort located near Gaŗezers lost electrical power but suffered little damage, Kore said. Most of the damage was confined to the north side of the Gaŗezers territory and the Latvian residential area nearby.

Gaŗezers administrators were still assessing the damage and were expecting to learn May 31 what repairs will be covered by insurance. It still is not known if Gaŗezers will need to organize a donation drive to help offset costs of fixing the property, Kore said.

All events and activities, including the summer high school program, are expected to take place as scheduled, she added.

The “Supertalka” work bee is scheduled June 4 at the center, 57732 Lone Tree Road, Three Rivers, Mich. For further information, visit the Gaŗezers website, www.garezers.org.

A national referendum on dissolution of the Latvian parliament is set July 23, the Central Election Commission in Rīga has announced.

The date was approved May 30 after President Valdis Zatlers on May 28 used his constitutional power to initiate dismissal of the Saeima—the first time any Latvian head of state has done so.

In a nationally broadcast speech, the president reacted to the May 26 failure by the Saeima to back the prosecutor general’s request to allow a search of residences controlled by oligarch and MP Ainārs Šlesers. Zatlers said the decision revealed a split between the legislative and judicial branches of Latvia’s government.

Šlesers, according to Latvian media reports, is among oligarchs and public officials implicated in a serious criminal investigation recently undertaken by the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs).

Šlesers, speaking on Latvian Independent Television, said Zatlers is engaging in a power grab similar to what President Kārlis Ulmanis did in 1934. The only difference, Šlesers said, is that Zatlers is pursuing it via democratic measures, unlike the coup-d’état of Ulmanis.

The election commission chose the latest possible date for the referendum, according to a press release. This will allow the commission to organize mail balloting for Latvian citizens abroad, as well as allow the commission to better prepare for the referendum.

Under the Latvian constitution, if voters approve the referendum, then the Saeima will be considered dissolved and new parliamentary elections will be scheduled. However, if the referendum fails, then the president must step down.

Zatlers’s four-year term in office expires in July. The parliament is moving ahead with plans to elect the next president on June 2. Zatlers has declared himself a candidate for a second term, but admitted in his May 28 speech that he may have ruined his chances by calling for the parliament to be dissolved. The only other declared candidate for president is MP Andris Bērziņš, a member of the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība) and former president of Unibanka.

On July 23, polls will be open in Latvia and abroad from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time, according to the election commission. Voters will need to have a Latvian passport, in which notation will be made that the citizen has voted in the referendum.

Locations of polls abroad are not yet known. The American Latvian Association (Amerikas latviešu apvienība) has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to guarantee that the greatest possible number of polling stations operate in the United States. During the Saeima election in October, 15 polling stations were open in the U.S. Around the world, a total of 63 polling were open on Oct. 2.