In Latvia, only the head of state does not have the right to dual citizenship. President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, 66, who lived abroad for most of her life, was forced for this reason to renounce her Canadian citizenship in 1999. But the post of Minister for Social Integration is held by a citizen of Latvia and the USA, Nils Muižnieks (Latvian First Party). There are also three holders of two passports among the Saeima deputies from the largest opposition party "New Time": Krišjānis Kariņš and Uldis Mārtiņš Klauss have US citizenship in addition to Latvian, and their colleague Liene Liepiņa has a Swedish passport.
A draft law banning persons with dual citizenship from holding the posts of deputies, ministers, ambassadors, heads of special services, prosecutors, judges, etc., was submitted to the Saeima by the ruling People's Party. According to its data, there are approximately 20,000-30,000 citizens of two countries in the country, and two to three dozen of them occupy high positions. So far, having two passports is allowed for citizens of Latvia from the time of the first independence (before 1939), who were forced to flee the Soviet regime abroad, as well as their descendants.
The People's Party believes that a person with two passports in his pocket always faces a choice: which of the two homelands' interests should I protect? But the leader of the opposing party "New Time", Einars Repše, is convinced that the People's Party submitted its draft law in order to remove from their posts people appointed from November 2002 to February 2004, when he, Einars Repše, headed the government. Repše named the head of the Constitution Protection Bureau, Jānis Kažociņš, as target number one. He considers another target to be the Saeima deputy from "New Time", Krišjānis Kariņš. In the spring, during the government crisis, this politician with US and Latvian citizenship was named among potential prime ministers.