Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda formally presented the candidacy of Gintautas Paluckas, a member of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), for the post of prime minister, according to bne IntelliNews.
Paluckas was nominated after the LSDP won last month’s parliamentary elections with 52 seats in the 141-seat chamber. The decision came after party leader Vilija Blinkevičiūtė decided to keep her seat in the European Parliament.
A coalition consisting of the LSDP, the Nemunas Dawn party and the Democratic Union For Lithuania, which jointly held 86 seats in the 141-seat Seimas, also backed Paluckas’ candidacy. Speaking on state television, he announced plans to revise Lithuania’s 2025 state budget to allocate 3.5 % of GDP to defence spending.
Currently, Lithuania’s defence budget stands at around 3.2% of GDP, which amounts to 2.5 billion euros. Next year’s budget, meanwhile, will be of a similar amount, totalling just over 3 % of GDP due to projected economic growth.
Paluckas also claimed he would try to establish co-operation with China, which severed relations with Lithuania when the previous government had allowed Taiwan to open a representative office under its own name, in violation of One China policy.
