Petras Dargis

At 69 years old, he was among the oldest first-term MPs to enter the Seimas after the 2024 elections.

Petras Dargis was born on 1955-01-17 in Šilalė District and is a Lithuanian journalist and politician.

He speaks the Russian and German languages.

He is from Kaltinėnai village in the Šilalė district of western Lithuania.

He was born in the village of Dvarčiai in Šilalė District.

He is married.

His hobbies include technical creative work and traveling.

He is an avid do-it-yourself inventor: at his rural homestead he built a homemade solar collector and a biogas generator (fermenting apples for gas), openly sharing these innovations in media.

He has a son, Vincas Dargis, who is an engineer; together they built homemade solar and biogas systems at the family homestead.

He studied journalism at Vilnius University and graduated in 1985.

In the late 1980s, he served as editor of the Šilalė District’s local newspaper, having previously worked for a district publication in Radviliškis.

After his journalism career, he worked as an adviser to Šilalė District Mayor Algirdas Meiženis.

He worked as a journalist for 44 years before entering politics.

He was a long-time journalist at the regional daily newspaper “Šiaulių kraštas.”

He was a longtime editor and one of the co-founders of the regional daily newspaper “Šiaulių kraštas.”

He sits in the Seimas as a member of the “Nemuno Aušros” parliamentary faction (political group).

He has been a Member of the Seimas (Parliament) since 14 November 2024, serving in the 2024–2028 parliamentary term.

In 2024, he formally joined the political party “Nemuno aušra” and became deputy chairman of its Šilalė district branch.

He served as a member of the Šilalė District Municipal Council during 2021–2023.

In the Seimas, he is a member of the parliamentary Committee on Culture.

Thanks to voters’ preference votes in the October 2024 election, he was lifted from 30th to 13th place on the “Nemuno Aušra” party list, securing him one of the party’s 14 seats in the Seimas.

In the 2024 parliamentary election he was nominated by the political party “Nemuno Aušra” and was elected to the Seimas via the party’s list.

He was ranked 30th on the “Nemuno Aušra” party’s candidate list and did not expect to be elected to the Seimas.

Before 2024, Dargis had once run for the Seimas as a non-party candidate on the Order and Justice (Tvarka ir teisingumas) party’s list – he was placed last on the list (No. 25) and did not win a seat.

As the editor of Šilalė’s local paper in the 1980s, he earned a relatively high salary for that era, making his choice to leave the job and start an independent newspaper surprising to many.

Before becoming a Seimas member, he lived on a modest pension (about €640 per month) and small dividend income; as an MP, his monthly salary is around €4,000.

According to 2024 election disclosures, his annual income before entering the Seimas was €2,308 and his accumulated assets were valued at €80,262.

According to his interest declaration, he is a shareholder of the regional newspaper “Šiaulių kraštas.”

In 2000, he became the first chairman of the Lithuanian Journalists’ Union’s Šiauliai regional branch, but was later expelled from the Union after attempting to establish a federation of journalist unions.

He is also the registered owner of a small sole proprietorship named “Guoba, P. Dargio įmonė,” based in Šilutė District and engaged in construction/manufacturing activities.

In the Soviet era, he was a member of the Communist Party.

In May 2025, he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “psychopath,” which the Seimas Ethics Commission ruled violated the politicians’ code of conduct.

His Facebook posts in late 2024, featuring old jokes and ambiguous cartoons, alarmed colleagues; “Nemuno Aušra” party leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis said he would discuss them with Dargis.