Overview

• President Gitanas Nausėda announced Paluckas’s immediate resignation on July 31, prompting his entire cabinet to prepare to step down.
• Lithuania’s anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies have opened formal investigations into his business and financial dealings.
• Journalists revealed Paluckas failed to pay part of a €16,500 fine from a 2012 bid-rigging conviction and flagged his firm’s sales to a company owned by his sister-in-law.
• The junior For Lithuania party had threatened to quit the coalition by August 18 unless Paluckas resigned, a stance that would have undermined the 71-seat majority in the 141-seat parliament.
• New coalition talks are underway to secure a governing majority ahead of upcoming joint military exercises by Russia and Belarus near Lithuania.