Dainius Gaižauskas

He was raised in a family of teachers who instilled in him the values of justice, honesty, and responsibility from an early age.

Throughout his career, Gaižauskas’s official income has reflected his roles in public service. As a police officer in the 2000s, his salary was relatively modest (for instance, a senior commissar’s base pay in the mid-2010s was around €1000 per month). By comparison, as a Member of the Seimas his gross monthly salary is on the order of a few thousand euros (approximately €3,500–€4,000, estimated), supplemented by parliamentary expense allowances.

Gaižauskas is the Deputy Head of the Lithuanian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

He has represented the Seimas of Lithuania in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly since 2016.

He serves as Chair of the Seimas Commission for Parliamentary Oversight of Criminal Intelligence, having been elected to that post in October 2025.

As of the 2024–2028 Seimas term, he is a member of the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence.

In the 2020–2024 Seimas, he served as Deputy Chair of the National Security and Defence Committee.

He took over as Chairman of the Seimas National Security and Defence Committee (NSGK) on 25 July 2019 and served in that position until 13 November 2020.

During the 2016–2020 parliamentary term, he also served as the Chairman of the Seimas Commission for Parliamentary Scrutiny of Criminal Intelligence.

In the 2024 Seimas election, Gaižauskas again ran in Marijampolė but lost in the runoff to Social Democrat Karolis Podolskis, who won the constituency with about 55% of the vote.

In the 2024 Seimas elections, Gaižauskas again ran in Marijampolė but was defeated in the runoff by Social Democrat Karolis Podolskis. Podolskis won just over 54% of the votes, while Gaižauskas received a little above 40%. Despite losing the constituency, Gaižauskas secured re-election to the Seimas via the LVŽS national party list.

In the 2024 elections, Gaižauskas was ranked 7th on the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union’s nationwide party list. He remained in that 7th position after the counting of preferential votes (reitingavimas), thereby easily securing a Seimas seat through the party’s proportional representation results.

He was re-elected to the Seimas in 2020 as a candidate of the LVŽS via the national party list.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, he was defeated in the Marijampolė single-member constituency by Homeland Union (TS-LKD) candidate Andrius Vyšniauskas, losing his direct seat. However, Gaižauskas still returned to the Seimas via the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union’s national party list.

Gaižauskas’s election history in Marijampolė has seen shifts in fortunes. In the 2016 Seimas race he won the Marijampolė single-member constituency, defeating conservative candidate Andrius Vyšniauskas in the runoff. At the 2020 elections, the same two faced off again, but this time Vyšniauskas prevailed (Gaižauskas, who had earned just 20.45% in the first round to Vyšniauskas’s 22.59%, lost in the second round). Gaižauskas still returned to the Seimas in 2020 via the LVŽS national party list. In 2024, he once more fell short in Marijampolė – losing the runoff to Social Democrat Karolis Podolskis – but again secured a parliamentary seat through his party’s list. Notably, Gaižauskas has consistently been placed high on the LVŽS proportional representation list, ensuring he retains a Seimas mandate even when defeated in the constituency.

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, Gaižauskas won the Marijampolė single-member constituency, defeating Andrius Vyšniauskas (TS-LKD) in the runoff. In the subsequent 2020 election, the same two faced off again: Vyšniauskas led in the first round (22.59% vs. 20.45% for Gaižauskas) and ultimately prevailed in the runoff, unseating Gaižauskas from the district seat.

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, he was elected to the Seimas in the single-member Marijampolė constituency (No. 29) representing the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS).

Apart from his public salaries, Gaižauskas has no significant private business income contributing to his wealth. His spouse’s assets are included in the family declarations (per the “gyventojo (šeimos) turto deklaracija” format), and his only entrepreneurial interest is a small scuba-diving enterprise, which is not known to generate substantial revenue. There is no public evidence of extraordinary wealth or independent income streams in the name of his wife or other relatives.

Gaižauskas’s asset declarations indicate a significant increase in wealth during his time in parliament. In his early Seimas term, his declared net worth was relatively low (on the order of tens of thousands of euros), but by the 2023 filing his family’s assets had grown to nearly €400,000. This substantial rise – without any major business income apart from his state salaries and pension – has been notable, and it falls under the scrutiny of VMI’s monitoring of officials’ assets versus incomes.

In April 2020, opposition members convened an extraordinary NSGK meeting aiming to remove Gaižauskas from the committee’s chairmanship, accusing him of stalling an investigation.

In 2015–2016, while heading the Marijampolė police immunity division, Gaižauskas faced multiple complaints from colleagues accusing him of intimidation (e.g., threats of dismissal and phone surveillance). The Police Department opened an internal inquiry and was asked to consider criminal charges for abuse of power, and Gaižauskas resigned from the police in mid-2016 upon learning of the pending investigation.

In March 2024, Gaižauskas formally alerted the Central Electoral Commission (VRK) about possible cybersecurity vulnerabilities on its website.

He received a special award and commendation from the Non-partisan Democratic Movement (presented by its chairman Kęstutis Čilinskas) in recognition of his self-sacrifice and civic spirit in defending the rule of law as a police officer.

Over his police career he was decorated with a total of nine service commendation badges and medals.

Outside politics, he is listed as the director of a private sports enterprise called “Scuba Druskininkai, MB,” which was established around 2017 and is focused on diving-related activities.