Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas resigned on Thursday after receiving an ultimatum from President Gitanas Nausėda.
“Gintautas Paluckas called me and informed me of his resignation,” Nausėda said, adding that he welcomed the prime minister’s decision.
According to the Lithuanian president, the prime minister’s resignation will not lead to significant changes in the government’s political course. Paluckas also resigned from the ruling party in Lithuania.
A week earlier, the Lithuanian president gave Paluckas two weeks to respond to allegations of illegal use of EU financial aid or resign from his post.
The media found out that a company owned by a relative of the Lithuanian prime minister received a preferential loan from the European Union and then began to purchase goods from Garnis, a company owned by Paluckas.
The official was also accused of having a Cypriot company sell him an apartment in central Vilnius in 2012 at a reduced price on a plot of land that Paluckas had registered while working in the capital’s administration.
The prime minister denied any wrongdoing on his part.
The ruling Social Democratic Party in Lithuania had already prepared several options in case the prime minister resigned, but it is not yet known who will now head the country’s government.
