Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda accepted the resignation of the government of Gintautas Paluckas on August 4.
This is reported by the Lithuanian media LRT and Reuters.
The president appointed Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius as acting prime minister. Like the previous prime minister, he is a representative of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania.
The next head of government is also expected to come from the Social Democrats, who hold 52 of the 141 seats in the Sejm. However, the choice will also depend on the position of their coalition partners.
After the Social Democratic Party Presidium decides on a candidate for prime minister, it will discuss the candidacy with President Nauseda. The head of state will then present the candidate to the Sejm, which will vote. The next session of parliament is scheduled for September 10 after the summer break.
Why did the Prime Minister resign?
Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas has been at the center of a series of high-profile journalistic investigations that led to law enforcement checks and ultimately his resignation. According to a joint investigation by Laisvės TV and the Siena Center, the company “Garnis”, co-owned by Paluckas, received a soft loan of €200 000 after he took office. The Central Commission for Official Ethics has become interested in the case.
Later, journalists found out that another company of Paluckas — Sagerta — received, but never repaid, a loan of hundreds of thousands of euros from the company Uni Trading, which is associated with businessman Dariusz Vilčinskas. At the same time, the prime minister himself publicly denied any business ties with Vilčinskas, although the latter admitted that he had invested in his business. In addition, in 2012, Paluckas bought a house from him worth more than €220 000.
Another episode was the Prime Ministerʼs purchase of an apartment in the center of Vilnius, which was sold to him at a reduced price by a “Cypriot” company. The land on which it is located was formed as an administrative unit by Paluckas himself, when he held a position in the city administration.
It also emerged that the prime minister had not fully paid compensation for the municipalityʼs losses in the so-called 2012 rat case — as of July 2025, only €4.9 thousand out of €16.5 thousand had been repaid.
The final blow to its reputation was dealt by the story of Dankora, a company founded by Paluckasʼ niece. It received European funding, most of which was spent on purchasing equipment at Garnis. After public exposure, Dankora withdrew the funding.
The prime minister himself denies all the allegations. The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania declared its support for Paluckas and emphasized that it saw no reason to remove him until the checks were completed. However, a series of scandals caused a political crisis, which ultimately ended with the resignation of the head of government.
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