By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuania’s ruling Social Democrats party said on Wednesday it had picked Social Affairs Minister Inga Ruginiene as its candidate for prime minister, making her the likely successor to Gintautas Paluckas who resigned on Monday.
The 44-year-old social affairs minister and former trade union leader Ruginiene will face a confidence vote in Lithuania’s parliament and must get lawmakers’ approval for her cabinet programme before taking office.
“Today we took the decision to nominate social minister Inga Ruginiene as Social Democrat candidate for prime minister duties”, the party’s Chair Mindaugas Sinkevicius told reporters.
Ruginiene has been the leader of Lithuania’s trade union confederation since 2018, before joining Paluckas’ cabinet in 2024. “I am guided by left-wing, social democrat values”, she told the country’s public broadcaster this week.
The Social Democrat party holds 52 out of 141 seats in Parliament and has formed a government coalition with the centre-left For Lithuania and populist Nemunas Dawn.
It was not immediately clear how the two junior coalition parties view Ruginiene’s candidacy.
Paluckas announced last week that he would step down and handed in his resignation on Monday amid pressure to do so over his business ties to a company owned by his sister-in-law.
Finance Minister Rimantas Sadzius is currently the acting prime minister until a new cabinet is sworn in.
Lithuania’s next election for parliament is due in 2028.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, editing by Essi Lehto, Terje Solsvik, Alexandra Hudson)
