Andris Ārgalis is a Latvian politician. He was the mayor of Riga

Riga

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

 from 2000 to 2001.

Andris Ārgalis graduated from the Latvian Academy of Neil McEwan in 1969.

In 1997 he was elected to the Riga City Council

Riga City Council

Riga City Council is the government of Riga City, the capital of Latvia. It is located in the Riga Town Hall at the Town Hall Square in the very heart of Riga....

 as representative of the For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK, a Latvian nationalist party. In 2000 and 2001 he was the Riga City Council Chairman (mayor). In a poll conducted in December 2000, he was the third most popular politician in Latvia with a rating 35.4 points on a scale from -100 to +100, after President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

Vaira Vike-Freiberga

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga was the sixth President of Latvia, the first female President of Latvia and the first female leader in eastern Europe. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected in 2003.Dr...

 with 54.6 points and Bank of Latvia

Bank of Latvia

The Bank of Latvia is the central bank of Latvia. It is one of the key public institutions and carries out economic functions as prescribed by law. The principal objective of the Bank of Latvia is to regulate currency in circulation by implementing monetary policy to maintain price stability in...

 President Einars Repše with 52.5 points.

In 2002 he left the City Council Members' office, and was elected a member of Parliament. In 2005 he resigned from Parliament and was re-elected to the Riga City Council, became a deputy mayor and chairman of the board of the Free port of Riga, a post traditionally held by the mayor.