Kęstutis Mažeika

Mažeika is by profession a veterinarian and agronomist, holding a veterinary medicine degree and a PhD in agricultural sciences.

Kęstutis Mažeika was born on 28 April 1982 in the village of Kaspukai (Marijampolė area).

He earned a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in agricultural sciences in 2013, after defending his dissertation that year.

In 2006, Mažeika graduated from the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy (LVA) with a degree in veterinary medicine.

He graduated from Marijampolė Sixth Secondary School (now Sūduvos Gymnasium) in 2000.

He also served as a lecturer in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences.

He has been involved in civic organizations, serving as a council member of the Lithuanian Land Owners’ Union and as the deputy chairman of the Kaunas Anglers’ Association.

In 2009, he became a farmer, engaging in crop cultivation, beekeeping, and breeding decorative birds.

After completing his studies, Mažeika worked as the head of the Career Center at the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy.

On November 14, 2024, he began his current term as a Member of the Seimas in the 2024–2028 legislature.

Since November 2024, Mažeika has been a member of the Democratic Group "For Lithuania" in the Seimas.

In the 2024 elections, Mažeika ran as a candidate of the Democratic Union "For Lithuania" (Demokratų sąjunga „Vardan Lietuvos").

In January 2022, Mažeika announced that he was leaving the LVŽS to join former Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis’s newly established party, the Democratic Union "For Lithuania".

Mažeika served as Minister of Environment of Lithuania from 2019 to 2020.

He was appointed as Minister of Environment in April 2019, succeeding Kęstutis Navickas in that position.

Kęstutis Mažeika was a member of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS) during his first term in Seimas.

He was first elected to the Seimas in 2016 as a candidate of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS).

In 2015, Mažeika was elected to the Marijampolė municipal council, where he served as a council member through 2016 and chaired the council’s Environmental Protection Committee.

Mažeika was a member of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS) from 2008 until 2022.

After October 2025, he has continued as a member of the Seimas Rural Affairs Committee.

Since December 2024, Kęstutis Mažeika has been a member of the Seimas Commission for Youth and Sport Affairs.

In the 2024–2028 Seimas, Mažeika initially chaired the Rural Affairs Committee (Seimo kaimo reikalų komitetas) from November 2024 until October 2025.

After stepping down as Environment Minister, he resumed work as a member of the Seimas Environmental Protection Committee until the end of the 2016–2020 term.

From November 2016 to April 2019, Kęstutis Mažeika served as the Chair of the Seimas Environmental Protection Committee.

He was elected to the Seimas in 2024 from the Sūduvos pietinė single-member constituency (No. 63) representing the Democratic Union "For Lithuania".

Mažeika was not re-elected in the 2020 parliamentary elections – running again in the Sūduva constituency as an LVŽS candidate, he lost to the Social Democrat contender, leaving him without a Seimas seat for the 2020–2024 term.

Mažeika was not re-elected in the 2020 Seimas elections. Although he led in the first round in Sūduvos pietinė constituency (with about 25.6% of the vote), he lost in the runoff to opposition candidate Vaidas Šalaševičius (TS-LKD), thus failing to retain his seat.

In 2019, Mažeika ran for the position of Marijampolė District Mayor. During that campaign, a billboard in Marijampolė featuring him (as a mayoral candidate) alongside fellow LVŽS MP Dainius Gaižauskas drew scrutiny, since it was financed from parliamentary funds. The VRK (election commission) reviewed the case but ruled that the poster did not constitute illicit political advertising.

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, Mažeika won the Sūduva single-mandate constituency. He advanced to the runoff and defeated incumbent Juozas Olekas with about 71% of the vote in the second round, securing his first term in the Seimas.

In the 2016 Seimas elections, Mažeika won the Sūduvos single-member constituency (No. 63) as a Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union candidate, defeating Social Democrat Juozas Olekas in the runoff to secure his parliamentary seat.

Kęstutis Mažeika first stood for election to the Seimas in 2012 as a candidate of the LVŽS, running in the Suvalkija single-member constituency, but he lost to Social Democrat Juozas Olekas. The LVŽS secured only one parliamentary seat nationwide in that election (and Mažeika was not elected).

In the 2012 Seimas elections, Mažeika ran in the Suvalkija single-member constituency and on the LVŽS party list. He did not win a seat – the Suvalkija district was won by Social Democrat Juozas Olekas, and the LVŽS secured only one parliamentary mandate nationwide (which went to a different candidate).

By the 2023 annual asset declaration, Mažeika’s declared personal assets were about €740,200, which made him the sixth-wealthiest member of the Seimas at that time. Previously, he had not been listed among the top tier of the wealthiest MPs in earlier years.

As Environment Minister, Kęstutis Mažeika earned roughly €3,500 per month (gross) – similar to his predecessor’s salary – which was considerably above the average wage in Lithuania.

Throughout his political career, Mažeika’s official income has come primarily from his public offices and farming. As a rank-and-file Seimas member during the 2016–2020 term, his salary was just over €2,000 per month “in hand” (after taxes), while in the 2024–2028 term parliamentary salary raises have nearly doubled an MP’s net pay to about €4,000 per month.

Mažeika’s spouse’s assets and income are included in his mandatory declarations, but no separate notable wealth is publicly attributed to his family members. His declared income sources are primarily his public salaries and farm-related earnings.

During his tenure as an MP and Minister, Mažeika’s asset declarations reflected moderate wealth – on the order of a few hundred thousand euros – largely consisting of real estate (including farm land) and household assets, with no extraordinary spikes in net worth observed year-to-year.

In early 2023, it came to light that Mažeika had used parliamentary expense funds to purchase a substantial amount of flowers (worth €416) from a business owned by his sister, Kristina Mažeikaitė. When questioned, Mažeika defended the spending, saying it was legal and even yielded a discount, but the Ethics Commission took notice of such potential conflicts of interest.

In May 2020, during his tenure as Environment Minister, Mažeika signed an order to legalize hunting with bows (effective from 2022); the decision provoked widespread criticism from environmentalists, Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, and even members of his own LVŽS party.

Environmental groups criticized Mažeika for proposing to loosen hunting regulations – including allowing hunting with bows – during his tenure as Environment Minister.

During his tenure as Environment Minister, Mažeika initiated a policy change that legalized waterfowl hunting in the Žuvintas Biosphere Reserve, a move that drew criticism from environmentalists.

On March 28, 2015, prior to his tenure in the Seimas, Mažeika struck and fatally injured a pedestrian while driving on a pedestrian crossing in Marijampolė.

As Environment Minister, Mažeika defended his position in a scandal over a European bison hunt, stating he did not participate in the controversial hunt where a bison was shot by another politician.