Former parlt speaker questions if president’s adviser should be appointed as minister

President’s chief national security adviser Kęstutis Budrys is expected to be nominated for the position of the foreign minister. Yet leader of the Liberal Movement Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, deputy speaker of the Seimas, wonders if "a cool-down period" should apply before Budrys making the switch from the Office of the President to the Government. Several years ago, President Gitanas Nausėda cited the same principle when refusing to appoint former ministers as ambassadors.

"We had situations in the past when the president was very clear and adamant that one or another politician or a ministerial candidate had ’to cool down’," Čmilytė-Nielsen said in an interview to the radio station Žinių Radijas on Friday.

"Yet again, the appointed prime minister forms the Government together with the president. The decision has been made, but perhaps it should be admitted more openly that this candidate is not the candidate of Gintautas Paluckas," she said, emphasising the importance of the separation of powers in a democratic country.

Nonetheless, Čmilytė-Nielsen stated that both Budrys and Social Democratic MP Dovilė Šakalienė are suitable candidates. While the former could become the foreign minister, the latter would be nominated for the defence minister’s position.

On Thursday, Lithuania’s new Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas presented ministerial candidates to President Gitanas Nausėda. On Friday, the head of state is meeting with Šakalienė and Budrys.

During his first term of office, President Nausėda started discussions about the need of "political cooldown", i.e. a break before politicians switch from positions they hold to new duties of career civil servants. In 2021, Nausėda refused to appoint former ministers Linas Linkevičius and Raimundas Karoblis as ambassadors arguing that some more time should pass before the move and calling to "depoliticise the diplomatic service".