Lolita Čigāne is a Latvian politician. She was previously a journalist, public policy analyst, international consultant and chairperson of the Board of Transparency International Latvia. In 2010 she joined the centre-right Unity party. Čigāne was first elected to the 10th Saeima in 2010. She served a full term as a Member of Parliament in the 11th Saeima, was the parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Finance in 2013-2014 and a member of 12th Saeima, serving also as the chair of the European Affairs Committee until November 2018. Currently she works as an international consultant in the issues of political finance, elections, election corruption, good governance and parliament affairs with organizations such as OSCE, European Commission, NDI and others, as well as visiting lecturer at Riga Graduate School of Law where she teaches EU law and integration and Stockholm School of Economics in Riga teaching political economy courses.
Early life and education
Čigāne first studied at Ozolnieku Primary school and Jelgava Secondary School № 2 from 1980–1990. She graduated from the Latvian Academy of Culture in 1996 with a BA in International cultural relations, specializing in Swedish language and culture. During her studies she was an exchange student at the University of Vasteras in Sweden. In 2000, Čigāne received a Master of Arts degree from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary in International Relations and European Studies. In 2001, she received a Master of Science degree from London School of Economics London, UK with a specialization in International Political Economy.
Professional career
Čigāne worked as a Swedish translator, interpreter and office manager with several Swedish companies and organizations from 1993 to 1997. From 1997 to 1999 she worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as a correspondent and international news analyst in Riga, Latvia and Prague, Czech Republic. From 2001 to 2003, Čigāne worked as the Project Director for election campaign monitoring projects at Soros Foundation Latvia and Transparency International Latvia branch Delna. From 2004 to 2007, Čigāne worked at the Centre for Public Policy Providus where she managed public policy projects dealing with financing of political parties, conduct of election campaigns and monitoring of the EU structural fund distribution. From 2007 to 2010, she worked as an international consultant with several international organizations. From 2008 to 2010 she was the chairperson of the Board of Transparency International Latvia Chapter Delna.
Political career
Čigāne became a member of the organization Meierovics’s society for progressive changes that was established in March 2010 by the former editor-in-chief of the biggest daily DienaSarmīte Ēlerte in March 2010. In May 2010, members of the organization announced that they would be running in October 2010 parliamentary elections on the list of Unity electoral bloc from the political party Civic Union. Running from the 8th position in Riga constituency, Lolita Čigāne was elected to the 10th Saeima in October 2010. In 2011, the parliament was dissolved by then President Valdis Zatlers, quoting increasing influence of oligarchs in parliamentary decision making. In early elections of September 2011, Čigāne was seventh on the Unity party list with six members qualifying for election to parliament. She nevertheless served as a Member of Parliament for a full term after the Minister of FinanceAndris Vilks took office in November 2011 and suspended his parliamentary mandate. She became the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Finance in the autumn of 2013. Čigāne was elected to the 12th Saeima on 4 October 2014 and in November 2014 became the chairperson of the European Affairs Committee of Saeima. Čigāne along with 4 other MPs left the Unity party in July 2017, and became a founding member of the Movement For! party. She left the Movement For! party in April 2018.
