Gintautas Paluckas

Gintautas Paluckas was born on 1979-08-19 in the city of Panevėžys, Lithuania.

He earned a specialization in software systems (Programų sistemos) from Vilnius University in 2003.

In 1997, he graduated from Panevėžys Juozas Balčikonis Gymnasium (secondary school).

He was the Director of UAB "Emus", a private company, from 2010 to 2017.

From 2007 to 2009, he was the Director of the Vilnius City Municipality Administration.

From 2005 to 2007, he served as an advisor in the office of a Member of the European Parliament.

From 2003 to 2005, Paluckas worked at the State Social Insurance Fund Board ("Sodra") as a senior specialist in the Insurance Organization Division.

Paluckas was again confirmed as the Chairman of the LSDP in May 2025, taking over the party leadership once more.

Paluckas was again elected as LSDP chairman in April 2025, winning roughly 79% of the vote (5,065 votes) against Juozas Olekas (745 votes, about 12%).

Paluckas’s coalition government (the 19th Government of Lithuania) was sworn in on December 12, 2024, after the Seimas approved its programme. In the new Cabinet, the Social Democrats held 9 of the 14 ministerial positions.

On November 21, 2024, the Seimas voted to approve Gintautas Paluckas as the Prime Minister of Lithuania, with 88 MPs in favor (36 against, 6 abstaining).

He was nominated as Prime Minister by President Gitanas Nausėda, based on a coalition agreement between the Social Democrats (LSDP), the Democratic Union "For Lithuania", and the Nemunas Dawn party (which together held 86 of 141 Seimas seats).

Paluckas was chosen to head the government after LSDP leader Vilija Blinkevičiūtė opted to remain in the European Parliament and declined both the prime minister post and a seat in the Seimas.

He served as the leader (seniūnas) of the LSDP parliamentary group in the Seimas from November 9, 2021 to November 8, 2022.

Paluckas was elected as a Member of the Seimas (Parliament) in 2020 and served in the Seimas from November 13, 2020 until November 14, 2024.

Paluckas was re-elected as LSDP chairman in April 2019, receiving around 90% of the votes against his sole challenger Algirdas Sysas (who received about 10%).

He was Chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party from 2017 until he resigned after the 2020 parliamentary elections.

In September 2017, shortly after Paluckas became LSDP chairman, the party’s council voted to withdraw from its coalition with the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS), prompting eleven LSDP parliamentarians to break away and form a separate Social Democratic Labour Party (LSDDP).

In April 2017, Paluckas was elected chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) in the party’s first direct leadership election, narrowly defeating then-Economy Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius (Paluckas received 5,190 votes to Sinkevičius’s 4,781).

He was a member of the Vilnius City Municipal Council and served as Vice-Mayor of Vilnius from 2015 to 2019.

He served as the Executive Secretary of the LSDP (atsakingasis sekretorius) from 2013 to 2015.

Paluckas has been a member of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) since 2003.

In the Seimas, Paluckas was Deputy Chair of the Economic Committee during the 2020–2024 parliamentary term.

He was also a member of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs from 2020 to 2024.

In the first round of the 2024 Seimas elections, Paluckas garnered 3,322 votes (19.66%) in the Utena single-member constituency. After a recount, he placed third – falling short of the runoff by just 48 votes (TS-LKD’s Edmundas Pupinis secured 3,370 votes, or 19.94%, for the second runoff spot).

In the October 2024 Seimas elections, Paluckas again ran in the Utena single-member district. A recount of votes showed he missed qualifying for the runoff by just 48 votes, leaving him in third place. Nonetheless, the Social Democratic Party’s strong performance (winning 52 seats) meant Paluckas secured a Seimas mandate via the party’s national list.

In the 2024 parliamentary elections, LSDP party leader Vilija Blinkevičiūtė was placed at the top of the Social Democrats’ candidate list, with Paluckas occupying the second position on the list. The LSDP won 52 seats in total, ensuring Paluckas’s re-election to the Seimas via the party list (since he did not win in the Utena single-member district).

In the 2024 Seimas elections, the Social Democrats (LSDP) won the largest share of the proportional vote. The party secured 18 mandates in the multi-member constituency – more than any other party – plus additional seats in single-member districts, for a total of 52 Seimas mandates. Paluckas, who was second on the LSDP’s candidate list (after Vilija Blinkevičiūtė), was re-elected to parliament via the party list.

In the October 25, 2020 runoff, Paluckas narrowly lost the Utena single-member seat to incumbent MP Edmundas Pupinis by a margin of just 6 votes (Paluckas received 8,093 votes to Pupinis’s 8,099, each about 50% of the total). Despite this loss, Paluckas still entered the Seimas via the Social Democratic Party’s national list.

In the first round of the 2020 parliamentary elections, running in the Utena single-member constituency, Paluckas received 3,303 votes (19.99% of the vote) and finished second, advancing to a runoff against Edmundas Pupinis of the Homeland Union (TS-LKD).

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, Paluckas ran in the Utena single-member constituency and advanced to the runoff. He narrowly lost in the second round, defeated by a margin of just 6 votes. (Paluckas still entered the Seimas via the Social Democrats’ national list in that election.)

In the October 2020 parliamentary elections, Paluckas received the most preferential votes of any Social Democratic candidate on the party’s national list, effectively securing his position as LSDP’s top list candidate (ahead of Rasa Budbergytė and Julius Sabatauskas). The LSDP won 8 Seimas seats via the multi-member (proportional) constituency in that election, and Paluckas was among those elected from the list.

Paluckas was ranked first on the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party’s candidate list in the 2020 Seimas elections (as party chairman at the time). He led the LSDP’s list ahead of candidates like Rasa Budbergytė (2nd) and Mindaugas Sinkevičius (3rd).

He was elected to the Seimas in the October 2020 parliamentary elections on the Social Democratic Party’s national list (proportional representation, not a single-member constituency).

Paluckas ran as the Social Democratic candidate for Mayor of Vilnius in the 2019 municipal elections, but he lost in the first round and did not advance to the runoff.

In the 2019 municipal elections, Paluckas (who was then Vilnius Vice-Mayor and LSDP chairman) failed to win re-election to the Vilnius City Council, as the Social Democratic Party did not meet the 4% vote threshold in Vilnius.

Paluckas has publicly credited his wife for their family’s financial success. After VMI data in 2025 showed him to be the richest among Lithuania’s leaders, he explained that this wealth was the result of hard work and investment risk, but "the biggest credit goes to [his] wife".

In 2025, while serving as Prime Minister, Paluckas’s official salary from the government was €8,748 per month (gross), which amounted to about €5,293 "in hand" after taxes.

The 2024 asset declarations (published by VMI in mid-2025) showed that Paluckas and his wife Ilma Paluckienė owned about €2.298 million in assets combined – including roughly €218,000 in real estate, €184,500 in land, €1.75 million in company shares, and €36,092 in savings under Paluckas’s name, plus his spouse’s declared assets (a €70,000 property, a €25,000 car, etc.). They also reported about €224,000 in outstanding loans, making Paluckas the wealthiest among Lithuania’s top officials that year.

Paluckas also has significant business interests abroad. In 2024, he became a shareholder of a Turkish company through which he acquired land in Turkey for a 1,400-tree walnut plantation, and in 2023 he purchased a plot of land in Brazil as an investment.

By 2023, Paluckas was reportedly the second-wealthiest member of the Seimas, declaring over €2.1 million in assets (primarily from his business ventures).

Paluckas’s liabilities also increased markedly – by the end of 2023, he reported having €225,600 in outstanding debts (borrowed and not yet repaid), up from about €75,600 a year earlier. His wife Ilma Paluckienė had an additional ~€38,000 in loans. These debts (totaling ~€263,600 for the family) were noted in his 2023 asset declaration and contributed to questions about his financial dealings.

Paluckas’s declared personal wealth surged between 2022 and 2023. According to tax authority data, his individual assets grew from roughly €1.554 million in 2022 to about €2.139 million in 2023 – an increase of ~€585,000 in one year. This, coupled with an increase in his spouse’s assets, brought their family’s total declared wealth from ~€1.663 million to ~€2.248 million over that period.

As Director of Vilnius City Municipality Administration (2007–2009), Paluckas earned a monthly salary of just over 6,000 Lithuanian litas (approx. €1,740). He stated at the time that this income was entirely sufficient for him.

In October 2025, opposition members of the Seimas initiated an impeachment proposal against Gintautas Paluckas, accusing him of engaging in business activities while serving as an MP, but the Seimas postponed and did not proceed with the impeachment discussion.

It was revealed in 2025 that roughly one-third of the court-mandated compensation (about €4,900) had only been paid by Paluckas on July 8, 2025, at which point the full damages to Vilnius municipality were finally reimbursed.

In July 2025, Vilnius city authorities demanded that Paluckas pay about €3,700 in interest for his delayed payment of court-ordered damages in the "rat extermination" corruption case, and President Gitanas Nausėda warned that if any violations were confirmed, Paluckas would have to resign.

Paluckas initially denied any wrongdoing in the "Garnis" loan affair, but after President Gitanas Nausėda urged a review, he asked the Chief Official Ethics Commission (VTEK) to investigate possible conflicts of interest. In July 2025, VTEK opened a formal inquiry, and the Special Investigation Service (STT) also launched a probe into the circumstances of the ILTE loan.

As part of the "Dankora" case, Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) agents carried out about ten raids in July 2025 and detained four suspects. Among those detained was Paluckas’s brother, Danas Paluckas.

In mid-2025, an investigative report by Laisvės TV and Siena revealed that a company co-owned by Paluckas – UAB "Garnis" (a battery systems manufacturer) – had received a €200,000 low-interest loan from Lithuania’s national development bank (under the ILTE program) while Paluckas was serving as Prime Minister, raising conflict-of-interest concerns.

In mid-2025, an investigation revealed that a newly established company, UAB "Dankora" – taken over by Paluckas’s sister-in-law Virginija Paluckienė – had received over €170,000 in EU funding for an electric vehicle and boat charging project, and then awarded a €145,200 contract to Paluckas’s own firm UAB "Garnis" (49% owned by him) to supply battery systems. Journalist Andrius Tapinas publicized the scheme, which raised concerns of nepotism and conflict of interest.

The inclusion of the Nemunas Dawn party in Paluckas’s 2024 coalition government was controversial, as Nemunas Dawn’s leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis was on trial for antisemitic statements – a fact that sparked public protests against the coalition.

Opponents have criticized Paluckas for past policy positions, noting that a few years before becoming prime minister he opposed increasing Lithuania’s defense budget and expressed support for purchasing electricity from Belarus’s Astravets nuclear power plant.

Investigative reporting in 2023 revealed that Paluckas’s former company UAB “Sagerta” – which he owned and directed from 2013 – had received around €180,000 in loans from a firm associated with businessman Darius Vilčinskas, and those loans were never repaid. “Sagerta” (which attempted an IT project called “MyLakeMap”) eventually went bankrupt after a few years, raising suspicions that the borrowed funds effectively became a benefit to Paluckas (a potential undeclared gain).

It also came to light that Paluckas may have failed to disclose certain liabilities in the past. Notably, during his 2011 campaign for Vilnius City Council, he did not report loans he had received – an omission flagged by investigators. Paluckas responded that since he was not holding office at that time, he had no obligation to declare those transactions, leaving the issue for authorities to evaluate.

Media investigations also uncovered that Paluckas, while a private citizen in the early 2010s, had purchased an apartment worth over €220,000 from businessman Darius Vilčinskas, whose company had previously lent money to Paluckas’s former business "Sagerta". Paluckas did not declare this real estate transaction (as he held no public office at the time), although anti-corruption officials later scrutinized the deal amid conflict-of-interest concerns.

In 2010, while serving as head of Vilnius’ city administration, Paluckas was convicted of abuse of power in a municipal procurement (the so-called "rat extermination" case). The conviction was upheld by the Lithuanian Supreme Court a couple of years later.

He received a two-year prison sentence (suspended) in that case and was ordered by the court to compensate the Vilnius city administration about 57,000 LTL (approximately €16,500) in damages.

On January 30, 2025, Paluckas was awarded the "Progressive Person of the Year 2025" title by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) in recognition of his achievements in strengthening social-democratic values in Lithuania and Europe.