Silvija Skvernelė, the wife of Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, has endorsed a candidate running for parliament in a closed Facebook group, rekindling controversy over the PM's alleged conflict of interests.
Skvernelė posted a message, urging members of her local community group to vote for Rita Tamašunienė, a candidate of the Electoral Action of Poles party, saying she helped secure funding for paving a street in the prime minister's neighbourhood.
A copy of the prime minister's wife's post, originally published on the closed group of Upės Street residents in Vilnius District, went viral on social media on Wednesday.
Read more: Lithuanian PM faces pressure over 300,000-euro street paving near his home
Skvernelis earlier came under fire for his government's decision to allocate funds for paving Upės Street which leads to the prime minister's house.
The prime minister's spokesman did not deny the authenticity of Skvernelė's post, saying it was her personal statement.
“The prime minister's wife, just as any other Lithuanian citizen, has the right to express her opinion on all matters. It’s the prime minister's wife's personal statement I cannot comment on,” Tomas Beržinskas told BNS.
In her post, Skvernelė asked members of Upės Street community to vote for Tamašunienė in the single-member constituency as “it’s a person who regularly reminded of our road problems to staff of Vilnius District Municipality”.
“Thanks to her, we have part of the road paved today,” Skvernelė wrote in her post.
The spokeswoman for Tamašunienė, who is the incumbent minister of the interior, said she cared about improving infrastructure.
“Over the eight years of her work [in politics], she has taken active steps to ensure asphalt-paving of over a dozen road sections, since better infrastructure also improves the quality of life,” Božena Zaborovska-Zdanovič told BNS.
Following the paving of Upės Street, PM Skvernelis was accused by the opposition of a conflict of interest.
The Chief Official Ethics Commission concluded in June, however, that there was no evidence to suggest that was the case, since the government document allocating the funding did not mention the particular street. Vilnius District Municipality was in charge of using the funds and Skvernelis insisted he did not have any influence over the decision.
Tamašunienė was elected in Nemenčinė single-member constituency and is now also running for parliament there.
Her party, the Electoral Action of Poles, is a coalition partner of Skvernelis' Farmers and Greens Union. It also dominates the council of Vilnius District.
Read more: Ethics watchdog clears Lithuanian PM of wrongdoing in road paving probe
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