Overview

• Gintautas Paluckas stepped down as prime minister after investigations into his business dealings ignited public protests demanding his departure.
• His resignation automatically dissolved the three-party coalition cabinet, creating a potential leadership vacuum weeks before joint military drills with Russia and Belarus.
• President Gitanas Nausėda has begun negotiations with party leaders and may ask ministers to stay on until a new government is formed.
• The junior partner For Lithuania threatened to withdraw its support unless Paluckas resigned by mid-August, highlighting the coalition’s slim parliamentary majority.
• Nausėda has pledged that Lithuania’s foreign policy and backing for Ukraine will remain steady despite the domestic political upheaval.