Juozas Olekas

Juozas Olekas was born on 30 October 1955 in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Mansky District, Russia (then USSR).

He was born in Bolshoy Ungut Village, Mansk District, Krasnoyarsk Krai (Siberia, Russia).

His parents, Joana (Kulbokaitė) and Juozas Olekas, were from the Vilkaviškis area and were deported to Siberia in May 1948, several years before his birth.

He is married to Aurelija Olekienė, and they have three children.

In 1987, he earned the degree of Candidate of Medical Sciences (now equivalent to a Ph.D.) at Vilnius University.

He studied medicine at Kaunas Medical Institute (1974–1976) and then at Vilnius University (1976–1980), graduating as a physician in 1980.

By 2019, Olekas had served as a Seimas member for 23 years (six consecutive terms, from the 7th through the 12th Seimas), making him one of the longest-serving parliamentarians in Lithuania.

Between 1994 and 1997, Juozas Olekas served as the chief physician (head doctor) of Vilnius University’s Santariškės Clinical Hospital.

He worked as an associate professor at Vilnius University’s Faculty of Medicine from 1992 to 2004.

From 1992 to 1997, he worked as a microsurgeon and maxillofacial surgeon at the Vilnius City Emergency (Ambulance) Hospital (Žalgiris Clinic).

On 10 September 2025, Juozas Olekas was elected as Speaker of the Seimas, receiving 84 votes in favor (with 20 MPs against and 23 abstentions) in a secret ballot.

Since 19 November 2024, Juozas Olekas has been serving as the First Deputy Speaker of the Seimas.

He served as Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Belarus from March 2022 until July 2024.

He was one of two candidates in the Social Democratic Party’s 2021 leadership election (the other being Vilija Blinkevičiūtė).

In the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party’s 2021 leadership election, Olekas lost to Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, receiving about 44% of the vote (finishing second).

He was a Member of the European Parliament from 2019 to 2024, representing Lithuania in the S&D political group.

He again served as Minister of National Defence from 2012 to 2016.

He served as Lithuania’s Minister of National Defence from 2006 to 2008.

He again held the position of Minister for Health from 2003 to 2004.

He served as a Member of the Seimas (Parliament of Lithuania) from 1996 until 2019, spanning multiple consecutive terms.

He served as Lithuania’s Minister for Health from 1990 until 1992.

He was a People’s Deputy in the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies from 1989 to 1990, nominated by the Lithuanian Reform Movement Sąjūdis.

He has been a member of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSDP) since 1989.

He served as Deputy Chairman of the LSDP from 1999 to 2004, and again from 2007 onwards.

During the 2000–2004 term, he served as Deputy Chair of the Seimas Committee on Health Affairs.

He was the Chair of the Seimas Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in the 2000–2004 Seimas term.

In 2024, he was elected to the Seimas as a Social Democratic Party list candidate.

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, he ran in the Sūduvos single-mandate constituency (Marijampolė region) but was defeated (LVŽS candidate Kęstutis Mažeika won that district), after which Olekas secured a Seimas seat via the Social Democrats’ national list.

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, he was not elected in a single-mandate district but secured a Seimas seat via the LSDP’s national party list.

In the 2012 Seimo elections, Olekas again won the Suvalkija constituency, securing about 60.8% of the vote in the runoff against Darbo Partija’s candidate Algimanta Pabedinskienė.

In the 2012 parliamentary elections, he won a single-member seat in the Suvalkija constituency (No. 63) as an LSDP candidate.

As a Seimas member, his base salary is about €3,608 per month gross (as of 2024, before taxes).

As a Member of the European Parliament (2019–2024), Olekas earned roughly €7,800 per month after EU taxes (about €10,000 gross).

Upon entering the Seimas in late 2016, he declared assets totaling €351,017 and had an annual income of €71,528 (with €6,473 paid in income tax).

Between 2015 and 2016, his declared total assets increased by approximately €65,000 (from ~€286k to ~€351k), a significant jump relative to his annual income.

As Lithuania’s Minister of National Defence (circa 2014–2015), he earned roughly €3,850 gross per month.

According to his 2015 asset declaration, Olekas held about €286,000 in assets and €28,570 in debts, while his wife Aurelija had roughly €90,000 in assets and €45,000 in liabilities.

His 2014 annual declaration (filed in 2015) showed a combined family wealth of approximately 1.29 million litai (about €374,000), up from about 1.15 million LTL (~€333,000) the year before – a jump largely attributed to the sale of the family’s house in 2013 and purchase of a new home.

Per his 2011 asset declaration, Juozas Olekas (together with his wife) declared total assets of about 1.1 million litai and liabilities of 67,000 litai (approximately €319k in assets vs €19k debt).

He is a member of numerous organizations, including the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, the Lithuanian Medical Movement, the Lithuanian Beekeepers Union, and the Vilnius Rotary Club, among others.

In 2021, Olekas faced criticism within his party for remarks perceived as derogatory to women (using the phrase “bobą į ratus”).

In 2016, a Ministry of Defence procurement scandal (nicknamed the “golden spoons” affair) led to heavy criticism of Defence Minister Juozas Olekas.

In 1999, Juozas Olekas was involved in a traffic accident in which he struck and fatally injured two reserve military officers on a pedestrian crossing.

In 2013, he was awarded the Second Class Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana by the Republic of Estonia.

He was honored with the Order of Orange-Nassau (Commander’s Cross) by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2008.

In 2000, he received the Lithuanian Independence Medal.

He was awarded the Lithuanian State Prize in 1988 for a series of works in reconstructive microsurgery (shared with a team of Vilnius University microsurgeons).