Lithuanian opposition parties on Monday called on President Gitanas Nausėda to assess Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas’ ability to remain in office following a journalistic investigation that raised questions about his past business dealings and possible conflicts of interest.
In a joint statement, the conservative and liberal opposition factions said Paluckas was under a “shadow of potential corrupt deals, undisclosed loans, and conflicts of interest” that may pose a national security risk. They urged the president to take “principled action” and hold the prime minister politically accountable.
“A prime minister facing such serious allegations cannot remain in office,” the statement said.
The opposition’s demands follow the release of an investigative report on Sunday by Laisvės TV and the Centre for Investigative Journalism Siena, which examined Paluckas’ business activities from more than a decade ago. The report highlighted questionable loans and ties to businessman Darijus Vilčinskas.
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Paluckas responded to the accusations during a session of the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament, where he dismissed the investigation as part of a trend he described as “journalism as a business model”.
“Today, so-called investigations have become a business,” Paluckas said from the parliamentary rostrum. “There’s money to be made from fragments of information wrapped in fiction. That’s not new in the West, either in politics or business.”
Paluckas claimed his answers would not satisfy “those who aren’t willing to hear them and will remain sceptical regardless.”
He criticised the media for generating outrage and confusion through sensational headlines, comparing the style of reporting to “something between OnlyFans and telephone fraud”.
The prime minister was invited to speak in parliament at the opposition’s request, following the release of the investigation.
Paluckas insisted there was no conflict of interest, emphasising that from mid-2009 to spring 2015, he acted as a private individual, not a public official. He said suggestions that he benefited improperly from the business were “baseless and manipulative”.
He acknowledged that the shareholder structure of the company Sagerta, in which he held a 55% stake, was not reported to the national registry on time, calling it a “mistake” that was corrected in 2015. The remaining 45% was owned by Uni Trading, a company linked to Vilčinskas.
Paluckas said he received only a nominal salary while managing the company and transferred his shares to two employees before returning to politics in 2015.
The prime minister also dismissed conservative questions about who was responsible for funding the startup, saying Vilčinskas had invited him to join the project. Sagerta had aimed to build a bathymetric mapping system and an app for anglers, but the business failed and went bankrupt.
“Like nine out of ten startups, it didn’t succeed,” Paluckas said.
President Nausėda is scheduled to meet with Paluckas on Tuesday to discuss the investigation.
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