Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga GCB OC OQ (née Vīķe; born 1 December 1937) is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth president of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first and to date only woman to hold the post and the most recent to be re-elected for a second term.

Freiberga is a professor and interdisciplinary scholar, having published eleven books and numerous articles, essays and book chapters in addition to her extensive speaking engagements. As President of the Republic of Latvia 1999–2007, she was instrumental in achieving membership in the European Union and NATO for her country. She is active in international politics, was named Special Envoy to the Secretary General on United Nations reform and was official candidate for UN Secretary General in 2006.

She remains active in the international arena and continues to speak in defense of liberty, equality and social justice, and for the need of Europe to acknowledge the whole of its history. She is a well-known pro-European, as such, in December 2007 she was named vice-chair of the Reflection group on the long-term future of the European Union. She is also known for her work in psycholinguistics, semiotics and analysis of the oral literature of her native country.

After her presidency, Vīķe-Freiberga served as a founding co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center and as the president of Club of Madrid, the world's largest forum of former heads of state and government, from 2014 to 2020. She is also a member of the International Programme Board of the Prague European Summit.

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