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Politics of Lithuania takes place in a framework of aunitarysemi-presidentialrepresentative democraticrepublic,[1][2][3][4] whereby thepresident of Lithuania is thehead of state and theprime minister of Lithuania is thehead of government, and of amulti-party system.
Executive power is exercised by thepresident and the Government, which is headed by theprime minister.Legislative power is vested in both the Government and theunicameralSeimas (LithuanianParliament).Judicial power is vested in judges appointed by the president of Lithuania and is independent of executive and legislature power. Thejudiciary consists of theConstitutional Court, theSupreme Court, and theCourt of Appeal as well as the separateadministrative courts. TheConstitution of the Republic of Lithuania established these powers upon its approval on 25 October 1992. Being a multi-party system, the government of Lithuania is not dominated by any singlepolitical party, rather it consists of numerous parties that must work with each other to formcoalition governments. TheEconomist Intelligence Unit rated Lithuania a "flawed democracy" in 2024.[5][needs update]
Since Lithuaniarestored independence on 11 March 1990, it has kept democratic traditions. Drawing from the interwar experiences, politicians made many different proposals that ranged from strongparliamentarism to apresidentialrepublic withchecks and balances similar to the United States. Through compromise, asemi-presidential system was settled.[1] In areferendum on 25 October 1992, the first general vote of the people since their declared independence, 56.75% of the total number of voters supported thenew constitution.[6]
All major political parties declared their support for Lithuania's membership inNATO and theEuropean Union (EU). Lithuania joined NATO on 29 March 2004.[7] Lithuania joined the EU on 1 May 2004 andSchengen Area on 21 December 2007 andEurozone on 1 January 2015.[8]
Since 1991, Lithuanian voters have shifted from right to left and back again, swinging between the Conservatives, led byVytautas Landsbergis, and the (formerlyCommunist)Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania, led by presidentAlgirdas Brazauskas. During this period, the prime minister wasGediminas Vagnorius.
Valdas Adamkus was the president since 1998. His proposed prime minister wasRolandas Paksas, whose government got off to a rocky start and collapsed within seven months. The alternation between left and right was broken in the October 2000 elections when theLiberal Union andNew Union parties won the most votes and were able to form acentrist ruling coalition with minor partners. President Adamkus played a key role in bringing the new centrist parties together.Artūras Paulauskas, the leader of the centre-left New Union (also known as the social-liberal party), became the Chairman of the Seimas. In July 2001, thecentre-left New Union party forged an alliance with theSocial Democratic Party of Lithuania and formed a new cabinet under former president Algirdas Brazauskas. On 11 April 2006, Artūras Paulauskas was removed from his position andViktoras Muntianas was elected Chairman of the Seimas.[9]
The cabinet of Algirdas Brazauskas resigned on 31 May 2006, as President Valdas Adamkus expressed no confidence in two of the Ministers, formerly party colleagues of Brazauskas, over ethical principles. Brazauskas decided not to remain in office as acting prime minister, and announced that he was finally retiring from politics.[10] Even so, he led the ruling Social Democratic Party of Lithuania for one more year, until 19 May 2007, when he passed the reins toGediminas Kirkilas. On 27 November 2008,Andrius Kubilius of conservative Homeland Union was appointed as a prime minister.[11] In December 2012 Andrius Kubilius was succeeded byAlgirdas Butkevičius after his Social Democratic Party became the biggest party in parliamentaryelections.[12]
In 2016,The Peasant and Green's Union (LGPU) won parliamentaryelections. It secured 54 seats in the 141-member parliament (Seimas), making a previously small centrist agrarian party the biggest in parliament. The conservativeHomeland Union won 30 seats. The rulingSocial Democrats, led by Lithuania's Prime MinisterAlgirdas Butkevciu, lost heavily and secured just 17 seats.[13] On 22 November 2016,Saulius Skvernelis of the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union, became new prime minister.[14]
In October 2020, conservative oppositionHomeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) won parliamentaryelections with 50 seats. Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis' Union of Farmers and Greens came a distant second with just 32 seats.[15] In November 2020,Ingrida Šimonytė became new prime minister, after forming a centre-right coalition government of her TS-LKD and two liberal parties.[16]
Government in Lithuania is made up of three branches originally envisioned byenlightenmentphilosopherBaron de Montesquieu:executive,legislative, andjudicial. Each branch is separate and is set up to dochecks and balances on each other branch.
The executive branch of the Lithuanian government consists of a president, a prime minister, and the president's Council of Ministers. It is in charge of running the government.
Thepresident of Lithuania is thehead of state of the country,elected directly for a five-year term and can serve maximum of two terms consecutively. Presidential elections take place in a modified version of thetwo-round system. If half of voters participate, a candidate must win a majority of the total valid vote in order to win election in the first round. If fewer than half of voters participate, a candidate can win outright with a plurality and at least one third of the total vote. If the first round does not produce a president, a runoff is held between the top two finishers in the first round, with a plurality sufficient to win.
The president, with the approval of theSeimas, is first responsible of appointing theprime minister. Upon the prime minister's nomination, the president also appoints, under the recommendation of the prime minister, theCouncil of Ministers (13ministries), as well as a number of other top civil servants and the judges for all courts. The president also serves as thecommander-in-chief, oversees foreign and security policy, addresses political problems of foreign and domestic affairs, proclaims states of emergency, considers the laws adopted by the Seimas, and performs other duties specified in the Constitution.[17] Lithuanian presidents have somewhat greater power than their counterparts in Estonia and Latvia, but have more influence in foreign policy than domestic policy.[18]
Former presidentRolandas Paksas, who had defeated Adamkus in2003, wasimpeached in April 2004 for leaking classified information.[19]
Dalia Grybauskaitė, the first female president, served as the president of Lithuania since July 2009 until 2019, winning areelection bid in 2014. Grybauskaitė succeededValdas Adamkus who had served a total of two non-consecutive terms.[20]
In 2019,Gitanas Nauseda won Lithuania's presidential runoffelection after his opponentIngrida Šimonytė conceded.[21]
Theprime minister of Lithuania is thehead of government of the country, appointed by the president and approved by the Seimas. The prime minister, within 15 days of being appointed, is responsible for choosing ministers for the president to approve to each of the 13 ministries. In general, the prime minister is in charge of the affairs of the country, maintains homeland security, carries out laws and resolutions of the Seimas and decrees of the president, maintains diplomatic relations with foreign countries and international organizations, and performs other duties specified in the Constitution.[17] In practice, the prime minister is mostly responsible for domestic policy, while the president mostly handles foreign policy.
Similar to thecabinet of other nations, the Council of Ministers consists of 13 ministers chosen by the prime minister and appointed by the president. Each minister is responsible for his or her own ministry of the Lithuanian government and must give reports on his or her ministry when directed to.[22] When the prime minister resigns or dies, the position is to be filled as soon as possible and the new leader will appoint a new government.
| Office | Name | Party | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| President | Gitanas Nausėda | Independent | 12 July 2019 |
| Prime Minister | Inga Ruginienė | Social Democratic Party of Lithuania | 25 September 2025 |
| Seimas Speaker | Juozas Olekas | Social Democratic Party of Lithuania | 10 September 2025 |
The parliament (Seimas) has 141 members that are elected for a 4-year term. About half of the members are elected insingle-member districts (71), and the other half (70) are elected in the nationwide vote usingproportional representation by party lists. A partymust receive at least 5% of the national vote to be represented in the Seimas.
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Presidential elections were held inLithuania on 12 May 2024, alongside areferendum on allowing multiple citizenships.[23] Incumbent PresidentGitanas Nausėda won re-election to a second term. When candidate registrations closed before the election, theLithuanian Central Election Commission [lt] had confirmed fifteen viable registrations; of those, twelve proceeded tocollect signatures from the minimum 20,000 voters. Four of those contenders were later repudiated or dropped out,[24] leaving eight on theballot.[25]
A second round was held on 26 May as no candidate received an absolute majority in the first round.[26] This saw Nausėda and Prime MinisterIngrida Šimonytė facing off in the runoff, a rematch of the2019 election in which Nausėda had defeated Šimonytė. Nausėda won re-election, defeating Šimonytė in a second-round landslide with 75% of the vote – the largest margin of victory in a free election for any presidential candidate in the history of Lithuania. |
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Parliamentary elections were held in Lithuania on 13 and 27 October 2024 to elect the 141 members of theSeimas. Members were elected in 71 single-member constituencies using thetwo-round system, and the remaining 70 in a single nationwide constituency usingproportional representation. The first round was held on 13 October and the second round on 27 October.[27][28][29]
The elections were won by theSocial Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSDP),[30] which secured 19.32% of the popular vote and 52 seats, up from 9.58% and 13 seats in theprevious elections in 2020. TheHomeland Union (TS–LKD), the largest party in the rulingcentre-right coalition in thepreceding Seimas, finished a distant second, securing 28 seats, down from its previous 50.
Following the first round of the election, the Social Democrats entered into coalition talks with theLithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS) and theUnion of Democrats "For Lithuania" (DSVL), which had split from the latter. After the second round, the consultations were expanded to include theLiberals' Movement (LS), which had been part of the outgoing conservative-led coalition, andDawn of Nemunas (PPNA), a new nationalist party that finished in third place overall.[31]
The LSDP eventually reached a deal with DSVL and PPNA to form a coalition government.[32] The Social Democrats' decision to include the Dawn of Nemunas party, whose founder is known for making controversial statements, prompted domestic and international backlash.[33][34]The judges of theConstitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucinis Teismas) for a single nine-year term are appointed by theSeimas from the candidates presented by the President (three judges), Chairman of Seimas (three judges) and the chairman of the Supreme Court (three judges).
Lithuania has a three-tier administrative division: the country is divided into10 counties (Lithuanian: singular –apskritis, plural –apskritys) that are further subdivided into60 municipalities (Lithuanian: singular –savivaldybė, plural –savivaldybės) which consist of over 500elderships (Lithuanian: singular –seniūnija, plural –seniūnijos).
Thecounty governors (Lithuanian:apskrities viršininkas) institution and county administrations have been dissolved in 2010.[36]
Municipalities are the most important administrative unit. Some municipalities are historically called "district municipalities", and thus are often shortened to "district"; others are called "city municipalities", sometimes shortened to "city". Each municipality has its own elected government. In the past, the election of municipality councils occurred once every three years, but it now takes place every four years. The council appointselders to govern the elderships. Mayors are elected directly since 2015, being appointed by the council before that.[37]
Duhamel has developed the approach further: He stresses that the French construction does not correspond to either parliamentary or the presidential form of government, and then develops the distinction of 'système politique' and 'régime constitutionnel'. While the former comprises the exercise of power that results from the dominant institutional practice, the latter is the totality of the rules for the dominant institutional practice of the power. In this way, France appears as 'presidentialist system' endowed with a 'semi-presidential regime' (1983: 587). By this standard he recognizes Duverger'spléiade as semi-presidential regimes, as well as Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Lithuania (1993: 87).
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)A pattern similar to the French case of compatible majorities alternating with periods of cohabitation emerged in Lithuania, where Talat-Kelpsa (2001) notes that the ability of the Lithuanian president to influence government formation and policy declined abruptly when he lost the sympathetic majority in parliament.