Latvia's 'Iron Lady' offers Europe a 'human face'

(BRUSSELS) - Former Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga said Thursday that she would be a "human face" for the European Union if EU leaders chose her as the bloc's new president.

"I think that I would be a human face," she told reporters at the European parliament in Brussels, as the 27 leaders converged on the Belgian capital to name a first-ever EU president and a foreign policy supremo.

"There are 26 men and one woman on the (EU) council, and we will see what they decide in their wisdom," Vike-Freiburga said.

But as bookmakers shortened their odds on her chances, she added, "I don't know whether I would venture money on myself."

Vike-Freiberga, 71, one of the few publicly declared candidates and a rare woman among those being touted for the term of up to five years, said she was not at all nervous, as the leaders prepared for a night of horse-trading to find a consensus.

"I am very serene. I'm not in the habit of getting stressed about things that are out of my hands," she said.

Ahead of the leaders' working dinner, she said: "I hope that they eat well, that they are in a good mood and that they will take wise decisions."

Vike-Freiberga went from political unknown to respected stateswoman during consecutive four-year mandates as Latvia's head of state, steering the former Soviet republic into the EU and NATO in 2004.

She earned a reputation as an "Iron Lady" for her feisty brand of politics and was a staunch supporter of Washington's war in Iraq and Afghanistan. That support, experts say, could compromise her chances of being named.

Born in Riga in 1937, she fled with her family during the Soviet takeover at the end of World War II, living in Germany, Morocco and Canada, where she carved out a career as a psychology professor in Montreal.

Her life as an exile -- an experience shared by thousands of Latvians -- made her a polyglot who speaks English, French, German and Spanish.

Vike-Freiberga returned to Latvia in 1998, seven years after independence from Moscow.

She gave up her Canadian citizenship to be eligible for election as president in 1999.

After leaving office in 2007, she became vice-president of an EU think tank set up to consider the long-term future of the expanded bloc. She is not a member of a political party, but is seen as a centrist.