Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda on Thursday appointed MP Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė as the country’s minister for education, science and sport, while Vytautas Šilinskas, currently a deputy minister, will be the new minister of social security and labour.
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė presented these nominations last week.
The position of education minister has been vacant since April when Gintautas Jakštas resigned over bumpy reforms, whereas Social Security Minister Monika Navickienė resigned earlier in June because of her suspicious connections with a businesswoman.
Before new appointments, Šilinskas served as a vice minister for social security and labour, while conservative MP Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė was a chair of the parliamentary Committee on European Affairs, and elder of the ruling conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) political group in the parliament, Seimas.
Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, 40, has served as an MP since 2016 and was a member of the European Parliament between 2009–2014.
At the Social Security Ministry, Šilinskas, 38, was responsible for labour law, the labour market, occupational safety and health and social insurance (except pensions), and was in charge of the social security fund SoDra, the Employment Service and the State Labour Inspectorate.
Šilinskas previously worked as a lawyer and is a labour law specialist.
Ministers in Lithuania are appointed by the president on the prime minister’s nomination.
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