{"id":107798,"date":"2025-07-31T14:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107798\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T14:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:54:09","slug":"lithuanias-prime-minister-steps-down-after-investigations-and-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107798\/","title":{"rendered":"Lithuania’s prime minister steps down after investigations and protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) \u2014 Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas stepped down Thursday, following investigations into his business dealings that prompted protests calling for his resignation.<\/p>\n

Paluckas, a newly established leader of the center-left Social Democrats, ascended to the role late last year after a three-party coalition formed following a parliamentary election in October in Lithuania. His entire Cabinet is also expected to resign, potentially leaving the Baltic country<\/a> without an effective government weeks before Russia holds joint military exercises with neighboring Belarus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing how the scandals are hindering the work of the government, I believe that I cannot allow our ruling coalition and the Cabinet to become hostages to these scandals,\u201d Paluckas wrote in a letter to Social Democratic party members. \u201cTherefore, I have decided to take a quick and decisive decision. <\/p>\n

\u201cI never cling to any position in life \u2014 and so I am open to all scenarios and decisions.\u201d <\/p>\n

President Gitanas Naus\u0117da<\/a> announced Paluckas\u2019 resignation to the media on Thursday morning. <\/p>\n

Lithuanian foreign policy is unlikely to change as a result of the government shake-up. Naus\u0117da, who was elected separately, is the country\u2019s face on the world stage<\/a> and has been one of the most stalwart supporters of Ukraine\u2019s fight against invading Russian forces<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paluckas has recently been dogged by media investigations into his business and financial dealings. Several media outlets published investigations in July regarding Paluckas\u2019 past and present ventures and alleged mishandlings, including ones more than a decade ago. Anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies in the country<\/a> subsequently launched their own inquiries.<\/p>\n

In a devastating blow to his reputation, the media also revealed that Paluckas never paid a significant part of a 16,500-euro (around $19,000) fine in connection with a 2012 criminal case dubbed the \u201crat poison scandal.\u201d <\/p>\n

Paluckas was convicted of mishandling the bidding process for Vilnius\u2019 rat extermination services while serving as the capital city\u2019s municipality administration director. In 2012, judges at Lithuania\u2019s top court ruled that he abused his official position by illegally granting privileges to the company that offered the highest price in the bid.<\/p>\n

He was also sentenced to two years behind bars, but the sentence was suspended for one year and he ultimately was never imprisoned.<\/p>\n

The Social Democratic party leader denied any wrongdoing regarding his business affairs, labeling the criticism as part of a \u201ccoordinated attack\u201d by political opponents.<\/p>\n

He resigned before the opposition could formally launch impeachment proceedings. New coalition talks are expected to start shortly to form a new Cabinet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) \u2014 Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas stepped down Thursday, following investigations into his business dealings…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,57,16953,2055,14611,8132,50,402,3658,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-107798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-general-news","10":"tag-gitanas-nauseda","11":"tag-government-and-politics","12":"tag-lithuania","13":"tag-military-and-defense","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","16":"tag-russia-government","17":"tag-world","18":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}