Mihails Zemļinskis


Mihails Zemļinskis is a Latvian politician and former international footballer.

Football career

Zemļinskis spent most of his career at Skonto FC except for short periods at FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, at BVSC Budapest and at Hapoel Kfar Saba. He was a skilled central defender and played for the Latvian national team after country regained its independence in 1991. He played 105 matches and scored 12 goals for the national team, and took part in the 2004 European Championships in Portugal. Zemļinskis wore the number 4 jersey. He eventually became a football coach at FC Daugava. He is also a former head coach of the Latvia U-21 team.

Political career

Since 2009 he has been a member of the Latvian parliament Saeima for the social democratic party "Harmony". According to a request made to the European Parliament, Zemļinskis was listed as a member of the Coalition pour la Vie et la Famille at the European level, a hodgepodge European party of conservative, extreme right, populist, eurosceptic, regionalist and neonazi members of national and regional parliaments from seven EU countries. This was at odds with his national party's associate membership of the party of European Socialists and its only member of European parliament being a member of the party of European Socialists. As of 19 April 2018, Zemļinskis was listed as a member of the Alliance for Peace and Freedom since 15 September 2015 in that European party's declaration of representatives registered with the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations.

Honours