Retirement and Subsequent Return To Politics
Guntis Ulmanis' term finished in 1999 and he was succeeded by Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga. He retired from politics but became a social activist, founding the Guntis Ulmanis Fund, organizing the 2006 IIHF World Championship in Riga and heading the Riga Castle reconstruction council.
2010 marked a return to big politics for Guntis Ulmanis. He became the chairman of the newly-created party alliance For a Good Latvia, which was composed of the People's Party and Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way. The alliance won only 8 seats in the October 2010 parliamentary election. However, Ulmanis became a Saeima deputy. In 2011 he announced he did not want to run for another term as deputy in the 2011 election. He therefore ceased being a deputy in November 2011, after the 11th Saeima was inaugurated.
Guntis Ulmanis has been married to Aina Ulmanis (maiden name Štelce) since 1962. They have two children: Guntra (b. 1963) and Alvils (b. 1966) and three grandchildren: Paula (b. 1994), Rudolfs (b. 2000) and Matīss (b. 2006). In his spare time Guntis Ulmanis enjoys reading history books and memoirs, playing tennis, basketball and volleyball. He has written two autobiographies: No tevis jau ne prasa daudz (Not much is required from you yet) (1995) and Mans prezidenta laiks (My time as President)(1999)
He is a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
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