Rita Tamašunienė

Rita Tamašunienė was born on 1973-09-27 in Maišiagala, Vilnius district, Lithuania.

She obtained a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Mykolas Romeris University in 2007.

She graduated from Vilnius Pedagogical University (now Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences) with a bachelor’s degree in Education in 2002 and a qualification in German philology in 2003.

From 2007 to 2012 she served as Deputy Director of the Vilnius District Municipality Administration.

In 2006 she was the Deputy Head of the Culture, Sport and Tourism Division of the Vilnius District Municipality Administration.

She was the Director (principal) of Pikeliškės Primary School in Vilnius district in 2004.

In 2002 she was the Deputy Director for Education (Deputy Principal) at Karvio Primary School in Vilnius district.

In 1994 she worked as a teacher at Karvio Primary School in Vilnius district.

From 1993 until entering national politics in 2012, Rita Tamašunienė worked in public-sector roles: she was an art director at a cultural center (1993), a teacher and later deputy head/principal at schools in Vilnius district (1994–2004), and a senior administrator in the Vilnius district municipality (Deputy Director of Administration, 2007–2012). These positions were modestly paid – for context, in 1995 Lithuania’s minimum monthly wage was only 100 litų (about €29).

She began her professional career as an art director at the Cultural Activities Center under the Ministry of Culture and Science in 1993.

In the 2024–2028 Seimas, she is a member of the joint Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union and Christian Families Alliance parliamentary faction.

In the 2020–2024 term, she was at various times the chair (seniūnė) and deputy chair of the Mixed Group of Seimas Members.

She again led the AWPL-KŠS parliamentary faction from 2016 until 2019, before being appointed as a minister.

Since 2012, she has served as the chairperson of the Širvintos district branch of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (AWPL-KŠS).

She was the leader (elder) of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania–Christian Families Alliance (LLRA-KŠS) parliamentary faction during the 2012–2016 Seimas term.

Rita Tamašunienė became a member of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (AWPL, now AWPL–Christian Families Alliance) in 2008 and sits on its supreme council.

During the 2020–2024 term, she was a member of the State Administration and Local Government Committee of the Seimas.

She was also a member of the Seimas Ethics and Procedures Commission during the 2020–2024 term.

She also served on the Budget and Finance Committee in the Seimas during the 2016–2020 term.

She was also a member of the Seimas and World Lithuanian Community Commission during the 2016–2020 term.

She chaired the Seimas Ethics and Procedures Commission from 2016 to 2019.

She was a member of the Seimas Budget and Finance Committee during the 2012–2016 parliamentary term.

In the 2012–2016 term, she was a member of the Seimas Saviours' Conference (Seniūnų sueiga), the meeting of parliamentary faction leaders.

She was a member of the Commission for Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Addiction in the Seimas during the 2012–2016 term.

She participated as a member of the Joint Commission of the Seimas and the World Lithuanian Community during the 2012–2016 parliamentary term.

During 2012–2016, she served as Deputy Chair of the Lithuanian Seimas delegation to the Lithuania–Poland Parliamentary Assembly (joint assembly of Lithuanian and Polish legislators).

She was re-elected to the Seimas in 2024, winning the Nemenčinė constituency (No. 57).

In the 2024 Seimas elections, running in the Nemenčinė single-member constituency (No. 57) under the joint Farmers and Greens–Christian Families Alliance banner, Tamašunienė was elected in the first round with about 43.34% of the vote.

By the 2024 elections, Lithuania’s electoral code had changed to allow a single-round victory in a constituency if a candidate receives the most votes and at least 20% of all registered voters’ support. Under this new rule, Tamašunienė won Nemenčinė (now renumbered as constituency No. 57) in the first round with 43.34% of the vote, comfortably above the one-fifth threshold, thus securing her Seimas seat without a runoff.

In the 2020 parliamentary election she was again elected from the Nemenčinė constituency (55) under the banner of AWPL–Krikščioniškų šeimų sąjunga.

In the 2020 Seimas elections, Tamašunienė’s party (AWPL–KŠS) failed to cross the 5% vote threshold and thus won no proportional (multi-member list) seats. Nevertheless, she retained her parliamentary mandate by winning the Nemenčinė single-member constituency, one of only a couple constituencies captured by AWPL candidates that year.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, running again in Nemenčinė (55), Tamašunienė garnered 8,014 votes (about 37.4%) in the first round – the highest of any candidate, though not a majority. She advanced to the second round against Justas Džiugelis (TS-LKD), where she won with roughly 61% of the vote, thereby retaining her Seimas seat for the 2020–2024 term.

She was elected to the Seimas in 2016, representing the Nemenčinė single-member constituency (No. 55) as a candidate of the AWPL-KŠS.

In the 2016 Seimas elections, Tamašunienė won the Nemenčinė single-member constituency (No. 55) in a two-round race. She led the first round with 44.14% of the vote and then prevailed in the runoff with 61.37%, defeating the Homeland Union (TS-LKD) candidate and securing her second term in the Seimas.

In the 2012 parliamentary elections, the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (AWPL) earned an 8-member faction in the Seimas, and Rita Tamašunienė entered parliament via the AWPL’s multi-member (proportional) list.

Tamašunienė’s asset disclosures show no private business interests or major outside income. Her and her husband’s property consists of personal assets (home, land, car) and savings, and her spouse Jaroslavas is employed as a sports instructor in a Vilnius district public institution (not a business owner).

During the 2020–2024 term, an ordinary Seimas member’s base salary was roughly €2,183 per month "take-home" (after taxes), and this is set to increase to about €3,781 net monthly for the 2024–2028 term based on a new law raising officials’ pay.

Tamašunienė’s income has come entirely from public-sector positions. As a Seimas member, her base monthly salary (after taxes) was about €2,180 during 2020–2024, and it is set to rise to roughly €3,780 from 2025 under new pay scales. As a minister (Interior in 2019–2020, Justice from 2025), her pay is slightly higher – around €2,600 net per month in 2020. Earlier in her career (e.g. as a teacher and municipal administrator in the 1990s–2000s) her earnings were much lower (only a few hundred euros per month, estimated), reflecting the modest public-sector salaries in Lithuania at the time.

Her annual financial declarations have remained relatively stable, with one notable jump: in 2020 she declared about €36k in liabilities and €26k in savings, but by 2021 her debt had dropped to ~€11.3k while her savings grew to ~€39k (a net improvement of roughly €38k in one year, with no specific publicly noted source).

As a cabinet minister, her remuneration is slightly higher than an MP’s: in 2020 Lithuanian government ministers earned roughly €2,600 per month net (without any bonus payments, which ministers are not eligible for).

According to her asset declarations, Tamašunienė’s wealth remained relatively steady until a notable jump around 2020–2021. For years her finances changed little, but in her 2020 declaration she had ~€26k in savings and ~€36k in liabilities, whereas in 2021 she declared ~€39k in savings and only ~€11.3k in debt. This roughly €38k improvement in net assets within one year was not clearly accounted for publicly. After 2021, her disclosures again showed stability: by 2025 she reported about €32.9k in savings and €24.5k in personal debt (the latter partly a car lease), alongside jointly owned property (each spouse declaring ~€70.6k for their house, ~€23.7k for other structures, and ~€38k for land).

She joined the Maišiagala Community Center in 2011 and remains an active member.

She is a member of the Vilnius District Local Action Group (vietos veiklos grupė) since 2007.

She has been a member of the Lithuanian Polish Union (Lietuvos lenkų sąjunga) since 1998.

In September 2025, Tamašunienė drew criticism by urging an amnesty for politicians implicated in the "cheque" expense scandals, suggesting that the environment was at fault rather than the politicians.

During the 2020 Seimas election campaign, Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis’s wife Silvija publicly urged voters to support Rita Tamašunienė in her Nemenčinė constituency, praising Tamašunienė for securing asphalt paving on their local street. This endorsement stirred criticism, with analyst Marius Laurinavičius calling Tamašunienė’s AWPL-KŠS party "openly pro-Kremlin" and suggesting the incident raised national security concerns.

As Justice Minister in 2025, she maintained her party’s opposition to legalizing same-sex partnerships and suggested considering a "Close Relatives" law instead.

According to her 2025 asset declaration, she and her husband jointly own a house valued around €70,600, additional structures valued ~€23,700 (e.g., a garden house or garage), and land worth ~€38,000.

Her 2025 financial disclosure showed she had about €32,900 in savings and €24,500 in personal debt. She drives a Kia Sportage (worth ~€35,000, acquired via lease), and her husband (a Vilnius district sports center employee) drives a car valued around €2,500.

Her husband is Jaroslavas Tamašun and they have a daughter named Jana.

Her immediate family consists of her husband Jaroslavas Tamašun (an employee of the Vilnius district sports center) and their daughter Jana. Neither she nor her husband has any private business ventures or significant outside income – all assets declared (house, land, vehicles, savings) are personal property acquired through their public-sector salaries. In her public positions, she has also been involved in community organizations (such as the Lithuanian Polish Union and local community groups) but holds no commercial directorships or shares.