Martynas Katelynas

Katelynas has strong roots in the Dzūkija region – he grew up in Merkinė (Varėna district) and often emphasizes it as his beloved home. His mother, who taught mathematics at the Merkinė V. Krėvė gymnasium, was even his teacher during his school years.

Martynas Katelynas was born on 1995-05-14 in Varėna, Lithuania.

Martynas Katelynas completed his secondary education at Merkinės Vinco Krėvės gimnazija in his hometown Merkinė. His mother was a mathematics teacher at that school (even teaching his class), and after finishing high school Katelynas moved to Vilnius to study chemistry at Vilnius University.

He pursued doctoral studies in Biochemistry at Vilnius University from 2020 to 2024, but did not complete the program.

In 2020, he completed a Master’s degree in Chemistry at Vilnius University.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Vilnius University in 2017.

In 2024, prior to entering Parliament, he worked as a programmer at UAB "Bioanalizės sistemos".

In 2023, he left his job in late April and spent May through September focused on his farm. During this period, Katelynas registered with the Employment Service as unemployed (a legal move given his farm’s small economic size), essentially pausing formal employment to concentrate on agricultural work.

From 2020 to 2021 he was a junior researcher at UAB "Laboratorija 1".

In 2019–2020, Katelynas worked as an assistant to a Member of the Seimas in the Seimas Chancellery.

Outside politics, Katelynas engages in small-scale farming in his native Merkinė area – he cultivates nearly 2 hectares of blueberries, grows potatoes, and even presses apple juice from an old orchard to sell locally.

He worked at the Christian Culture Institute (VšĮ Krikščioniškosios kultūros institutas) from 2017 to 2023, serving as a manager and later as director.

In December 2025, the Seimas adopted an amendment to the Civil Code proposed by Katelynas, raising the age threshold for placing children in institutional care from three to five years.

He has been a member of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSDP) since 2024.

Katelynas assumed office as a Member of the Seimas (Parliament) on 14 November 2024.

Since November 14, 2024, he has been a member of the Social Democratic Party’s parliamentary faction in the Seimas.

After being re-elected in 2023, he became the chairman of the Varėna District Council’s Control Committee (Kontrolės komitetas) and served as the council’s opposition leader until entering the Seimas.

Katelynas claimed to have ended his Nacionalinis susivienijimas membership at the end of 2022, yet his early-2023 private interests declaration still listed him as part of that party’s governing body.

Previously, he was a member of the National Alliance (Nacionalinis susivienijimas) from 2020 until 2022.

He served as a member of the Varėna District Municipal Council from 2019 until 2024.

During his first term as a member of the Varėna District Municipal Council (2019–2023), Katelynas chaired the council’s Ethics Commission (Etikos komisija) and served on its Budget and Finance Committee (Biudžeto ir finansų komitetas) throughout the term.

He has been serving as a member of the Seimas Youth and Sports Affairs Commission since 4 December 2024.

On 21 November 2024, Katelynas became the Deputy Chair of the Seimas Committee on State Administration and Local Government (Valstybės valdymo ir savivaldybių komitetas).

Katelynas won his seat in the Seimas by contesting the single-member Dzūkija constituency (No. 69) in 2024. In the run-off election, he secured roughly 56–58% of the vote, defeating former MP Juozas Baublys of the Liberal Movement (who obtained about 42–44%). This victory flipped the Dzūkija district to the Social Democrats.

In the first round of the 2024 Seimas elections, Katelynas had garnered only about 23% of the vote in Dzūkija, trailing closely with Baublys around 21%. However, with support from other eliminated candidates’ voters, he overtook Baublys in the second round to win the seat.

In 2024, he was elected to the Seimas as the LSDP candidate for the Dzūkija single-member constituency (No. 69).

In the run-off of the 2024 Seimas elections, Katelynas won the Dzūkija constituency with 57.72% of the vote, defeating Liberal Juozas Baublys.

In the 2023 municipal elections, Katelynas ran for Varėna District Council under the Social Democratic Party’s list. He was listed as candidate number 2 on the LSDP list and won a council seat again (the party gained several mandates, enabling him to return as a councilor, where he served as opposition leader).

In the 2023 municipal elections, he ran for the Varėna District Council on the LSDP list as the number 2 candidate.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, he ran as a candidate of Nacionalinis susivienijimas (National Alliance) but failed to win a seat.

Katelynas was elected to the Varėna District Council in 2019 on the Lithuanian Centre Party’s list.

Upon becoming a member of the Seimas in late 2024, Katelynas’s base salary as an ordinary MP is approximately €3,540–3,876 gross per month (depending on tenure), which comes out to just over €2,000 net after taxes. This level of pay is generally considered relatively modest for a national legislator in Lithuania.

Up to mid-2023, members of a municipal council like Katelynas received only small stipends for their work. A new law effective July 2023 granted councilors a formal monthly salary equal to 20% of the respective mayor’s wage. Additionally, an opposition leader or committee chair gets 20% on top of that. Hence, as Varėna Council’s opposition leader and a committee chairman, Katelynas’s councilor pay was set at about 24% of the Varėna mayor’s salary after the law change.

As a public official, Katelynas has filed annual asset and income declarations (turto deklaracijos) since 2019. These public filings (published by VMI) indicate that he does not possess substantial wealth or notable liabilities. No significant changes in his declared net worth have been reported over the last several years.

Katelynas’s annual asset and income declarations reveal no significant personal wealth or unexplained gains. His declared assets and savings have remained relatively stable from year to year, and he has reported no notable liabilities. This suggests his finances align with his public salaries and small farming income, with no indication of sudden wealth changes.

He became a member of the Seimas cross-party "Family Policy" group on June 30, 2025.

On June 10, 2025, he joined the parliamentary "Agrogroup" focused on agricultural issues.

On December 19, 2024, Katelynas joined the temporary parliamentary group "Prieš masinę imigraciją" (Against Mass Immigration) as its deputy chair.

He is also the deputy chair of the Interparliamentary Relations Group with Hungary since December 5, 2024.

Since November 21, 2024, he has been a member of the parliamentary "Friends of Dzūkija" group, representing the Dzūkija region’s interests.

He was involved in the national-conservative youth movement "Pro Patria" in 2019.

Katelynas took part in an anti-LGBT stunt in which a custom flag was made showing a man holding an umbrella colored in LGBT rainbow stripes over his family. The image – staged so that only the rainbow umbrella was visible – was intended to satirize or mock LGBT symbolism and advocacy.

He has openly opposed legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, arguing that same-sex couples are not a family and thus have no basis to be granted such rights.

He was the director of the Christian Culture Institute (KKI), an organization known for opposing LGBT partnerships and pride marches.

A local Varėna newspaper once labeled Katelynas a “bedarbis pašalpų melžėjas” (unemployed benefit moocher) for collecting unemployment benefits during the summer of 2023. Katelynas defended himself, explaining that his registration as jobless was lawful since his farm was below the size threshold that would disqualify him from unemployment support.

During his time in the National Alliance, he supported the idea of stopping migrants with lethal measures and even compared Lithuanian officers to Belarus’s OMON riot police.

He took part in protests opposing the removal of a memorial plaque honoring Jonas Noreika (Generolas Vėtra).

In a 2025 commentary, he argued that the outcry over a small amendment to the LRT law was an overblown scandal fueled by conspiracy theories.

After being elected, Katelynas emphasized that a Christian politician must represent his professed principles through actions rather than just words.

In early 2023, he stated that sexual minorities 'must have all the same rights as other citizens' and asserted that in Lithuania they already do.