Guntis Belēvičs

Minister of Health , Government of Latvia

Guntis Belēvičs, born September 2, 1958, is a Latvian politician and member of the Green Party of Latvia (LZP). He is the Minister of Health since November 5, 2014.

He studied medical biology between 1976 and 1982 in Moscow, and in 1988 obtained a degree in Biological Sciences at the State University. He was a researcher at the Latvian Academy of Sciences between 1987 and 1989, and in 1993 he founded a chain of pharmacies and a medical laboratory. In 1995 he successfully completed a PhD in biology at the University of Latvia, and received his medical degree at the Academy of Medicine two years later. Since 2004, he has been leading an organic farm.

He entered politics in 2013, during the municipal elections in Riga, where he lead the list of the Green Party of Latvia. Although failing to become mayor of the Capital, he was elected a member of the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) in the Saeima in the parliamentary elections of October 4, 2014.

On 5 November he was appointed Health Minister in the second government of the centre-right coalition of the First Minister Laimdota STRAUJUMA, a conservative.