Politics
Raimonds Pauls also had political experience. He has been a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR, from 1988 to 1993 he was the Latvian Minister of Culture. In 1993 he became an advisor to the President of Latvia. Since 1998, he had been the Member of Saeima, the Latvian parliament, initially being elected as a leader of the New Party. However, before the 2002 elections, he joined the People's Party and was elected on its party's list in 2002 and 2006. In the Latvian presidential election of 1999, Pauls was also one of the candidates for the President of Latvia, yet after remaining the last candidate in the election (none of the candidates could get the required amount of votes, but Pauls got more votes than the others), he chose to decline the post.
After Latvia gained independence, Pauls continued his musical work, most notably, tight cooperation with children's ensemble Dzeguzīte, which is the most popular children's group in Latvia. In 1996, he went on a tour with singer Laima Vaikule, which included concert locations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and New York City.
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