page_title: Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš
section_title: New Era Party, Saeima deputy and Minister for Economics
hierarchical_section_title: Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš / Political career / New Era Party, Saeima deputy and Minister for Economics
caption_attribution_description: Foto: Saeima
context_page_description: Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš is a Latvian–American politician, linguist, and businessperson who has served as Minister of Economics, a Member of the European Parliament, and is currently the Prime Minister of Latvia. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, to parents who had left Latvia during the Soviet occupation, he was active in the American Latvian community throughout his youth.
  After completing a bachelor's degree and PhD in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, Kariņš moved to Latvia in 1997 and founded a frozen food business. He helped found the New Era Party in 2002, which in 2011 merged with others to form the Unity Party.
  After serving as a deputy in Latvia's parliament, as Minister of Economics, and also as a Member of the European Parliament throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Kariņš was selected by New Unity to be its prime ministerial candidate in the 2018 Latvian parliamentary election. In the event, New Unity was the smallest party elected to the 13th Saeima.
context_section_description: In the early 2000s, Einars Repše invited Kariņš to take part in the founding of the New Era Party, and Kariņš helped write the party's original platform. He was elected to the Saeima on the party's ticket in October 2002, with New Era becoming the single largest party in parliament. While in the Saeima, he served on the education, culture, and science committee as well as on the constitutional committee. He also served as the chairman of the parliamentary faction of New Era from 2002 to 2004.
  Upon the resignation of Prime Minister Einars Repše in early 2004, Kariņš was discussed as a candidate to become the next prime minister. However, he was passed over by President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga in favor of Indulis Emsis, and again in favor of Aigars Kalvitīs after Emsis's resignation a few months later. He instead became Minister for Economics in the First Kalvītis cabinet from December 2004 to April 2006. According to Kariņš, he had a contentious relationship with Kalvītis during his time as minister. In April 2006, Kariņš was threatened with prosecution due to his relationship with a company that allegedly misused EU funds. Although Kariņš initially refused to resign, his entire New Era party left the government on 6 April 2006 due to an ongoing conflict with Kalvītis and his People's Party.
  Kariņš was re-elected to the Saeima on 7 October 2006. Although New Era was tied for the second largest party in parliament with 18 seats, the party did not re-join Kalvītis's coalition and remained in opposition. In March 2007 Kariņš became one of two co-leaders of New Era together with Repše. When New Era voted to merge with the Unity party in July 2011, Kariņš became a member of Unity. In July 2017, he criticized five members of parliament who left Unity for the new For! party as being primarily motivated by their re-election prospects, and indicated that he would not be leaving the party has his "values had not changed." He remained a member when the party was renamed "New Unity" in April 2018.
caption: Kariņš's official photo as a member of the 9th Saeima
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