The Nemunas Dawn party has submitted its candidates for the environment and culture minister posts to Prime Minister-designate Inga Ruginienė after the party and the Social Democrats agreed to swap Cabinet portfolios.
Under the coalition agreement signed in late August, Nemunas Dawn was to nominate the head of the Energy Ministry, while the culture minister was to come from the Social Democrats.
“Yes, the swap has taken place. The candidates have been presented to the prime minister,” Robert Puchovič, deputy chairman of Nemunas Dawn, told BNS on Monday. He declined to disclose the nominees, saying their names would be announced “very soon”.
The news website Delfi.lt was the first to report on the ministerial exchange.
The formation of Lithuania’s new government had stalled as Nemunas Dawn struggled to fill the Environment and Energy posts. Last week, President Gitanas Nausėda refused to reappoint Povilas Poderskis as environment minister or appoint Mindaugas Jablonskis as energy minister, citing doubts about whether they would act in the public interest.
To resolve the impasse, Nemunas Dawn presented four proposals to the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP). The Social Democrats, the largest coalition partner, responded Friday, and 15min.lt reported that Nemunas Dawn agreed to the swap with additional conditions attached.
The Social Democrats had planned to nominate MP Vaida Aleknavičienė as culture minister to replace incumbent Šarūnas Birutis.
So far, Nausėda has appointed 12 of Ruginienė’s 14 proposed Cabinet members.
The new ruling coalition – made up of the Social Democrats, Nemunas Dawn, and the political groups of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union and the Christian Families Alliance – was formed in August after the resignation of Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas. The bloc controls 82 of the 141 seats in the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament.
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