Lithuania’s former prime minister Kirkilas found dead at home

Former Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas has passed away at the age of 72, the news outlet 15min.lt reported on Saturday morning. The politician’s body was discovered at home.

The death of Kirkilas was confirmed to BNS by police spokesman Ramūnas Matonis. The body of the former prime minister was discovered on Saturday morning.

“The body was found at home without any signs of violence,” he said.

Kirkilas served as prime minister in a social democrat-led government from 2006–2008.

Born in Vilnius in 1951, Kirkilas studied Lithuanian language and literature at the Faculty of Lithuanian Studies of the Vilnius Pedagogical Institute from 1974 and studied political science at the Vilnius Higher Party School from 1978 to 1982.

Kirkilas was a member of the Communist Party, and during Lithuania’s drive for independence in the late 1980s was one of the supporters of the Lithuanian Communist Party’s secession from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In 1990, he was elected vice-chairman of the Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party (LDDP), the successor of the Communist Party.

Between 1991–1996 he was first deputy chairman of the LDDP, and in 1993 he was temporarily its chairman.

In 2001–2007, when the LDDP merged with the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), he became vice-chairman and, in 2007–2009, he led the party.

In 2017, he left the LSDP when the party decided to withdraw from the ruling coalition. Along with several other social democratic MPs Kirkilas founded the Lithuanian Social Democratic Labour Party (now the Lithuanian Party of Regions) and chaired it until 2021.

Kirkilas served as a member of parliament continuously from 1992 until 2020. Between 2004 and 2006 he was minister of defence.