Daiva Žebelienė

Daiva Žebelienė was born on 1968-09-15 in Šilutė, Lithuania.

She is married to a man named Romualdas and has three children (sons named Lukas, Tomas, and Tadas).

In 1994, Žebelienė graduated from the Šiauliai Pedagogical Institute, earning qualification as a primary school teacher.

On 2021-07-15, she was appointed as Deputy Director of the Šilutė District Municipal Administration.

As of 2025, her official salary as a Seimas vice-speaker is roughly €4,000 "į rankas" (net per month, about €6,000 gross). This is a substantial increase from municipal-level pay – for example, a district mayor’s position like she held in 2012–2013 had a much lower pay coefficient (6.0 under civil-service scales), equating to only around €1,500–€1,800 per month at the time (estimated).

Throughout her career, Žebelienė held multiple local government and private-sector positions before entering the Seimas. Notably, she served as Šilutė District Mayor and municipal councilor in the 2010s and was the longtime director of a family-run company (UAB "Toluta") until 2021. These roles were not highly paid compared to national office – for example, a district mayor’s statutory base salary coefficient was only 6.0 (i.e., roughly one-third of a Seimas member’s salary, estimated) – whereas by 2025 her remuneration as a Seimas Vice Speaker is several times higher (on the order of €4k net monthly).

She served as the director of a private company, UAB "Toluta", during 1998–2011 and again in 2014–2021.

In November 2025, Žebelienė was nominated as one of three candidates for the chairperson position of the “Nemuno aušra” party, running against incumbent leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis and fellow MP Lina Šukytė-Korsakė.

On 2025-04-08, the Seimas confirmed Daiva Žebelienė as a Deputy Speaker (Seimo Pirmininko pavaduotoja) by secret ballot (80 MPs for, 22 against).

During the 2025 spring session of the Seimas, Vice Speaker Žebelienė, together with a group of MPs, submitted 37 draft laws and contributed to 7 other legislative proposals.

Žebelienė became a member of the Seimas on 2024-11-14, beginning her 2024–2028 parliamentary term.

She has been a member of the "Nemuno Aušra" political group (frakcija) in the Seimas since 2024-11-14.

She is a member of the political party "Nemuno aušra", which nominated her as its candidate for the Seimas in 2024.

Since 2023, she has also served as a deputy chairperson of the "Nemuno aušra" party.

She was approved as Vice-Mayor of Šilutė District Municipality in a council vote on 2023-07-27.

Žebelienė returned to elected office as a member of the Šilutė District Municipal Council in 2023 (10th convocation, 2023–2027 term).

Žebelienė served as Mayor of Šilutė District Municipality from 2012 to 2013.

She was a member of the Šilutė District Municipal Council from 2011 until 2021.

Previously, Žebelienė was a member of the Order and Justice (Tvarka ir teisingumas) party and of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP).

Since 2025-04-09, she has continued to serve as a member of the Seimas Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities.

On 2024-12-04, she became a member of the Seimas Commission for the Cause of Freedom and National Historical Memory.

She was Chair of the Seimas Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities from 2024-11-21 until 2025-04-08.

In the 2024 parliamentary elections, Žebelienė won the Šilutė single-member constituency (No. 32) in the runoff on 2024-10-27, narrowly defeating Zigmantas Balčytis with about 52% of the vote.

Žebelienė was ranked among the top candidates on the “Nemuno aušra” party list in 2024. In the Šilutė single-member constituency’s first round (2024-10-08), she led with 32.53% of the vote, ahead of Zigmantas Balčytis (26.22%), which sent both to a runoff. (The remaining votes were split among other candidates, e.g., ~15.4% for the Social Democrat.)

Thanks to “Nemuno aušra”’s performance in the multi-member vote (the party received the most votes in Šilutė – about 6,258 there ), Žebelienė was effectively assured a Seimas seat via the party list even before winning the runoff. (Her victory in the one-mandate race meant the next person on the party list took the list-based mandate.)

In the 2024 Seimas elections, the “Nemuno aušra” party surged to national prominence, finishing third with roughly 15% of the vote. The party secured a total of 20 parliamentary mandates. Žebelienė, who was one of the top candidates on the party’s list, was assured a seat in parliament thanks to this result. Her simultaneous victory in the Šilutė single-member constituency meant that her list-based mandate was passed to the next candidate on the party list, effectively increasing “Nemuno aušra”’s representation by one more member. This election also marked a shift in Šilutė’s political landscape, as Žebelienė’s win unseated the long-standing Social Democratic presence in that district.

By law, Žebelienė and her husband have to declare their assets and income annually. The publicly released declaration extracts itemize their property by categories (e.g., homes, land, cash, securities, loans), though they do not show a single total net worth figure.

Over the last decade, Žebelienė and her husband have annually declared their assets and liabilities as required for public officials. The publicly available declaration extracts (FR0001 forms) list the value of property by categories – e.g. real estate, land, bank savings, investments, loans – for both her and her spouse, but do not provide a single summed net worth figure. Her filings have shown a stable financial situation with no abrupt, unexplained changes; any increases or decreases correspond to routine asset transactions (and no major jump in wealth has been noted publicly).

As of December 2024, Žebelienė is Deputy Head of the Seimas inter-parliamentary relations group with Italy and a member of several other inter-parliamentary groups (including those with Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Greece, and Saudi Arabia).

Žebelienė’s husband, Romualdas Žebelys, manages the family’s construction business interests. He serves as the director of UAB "Toluta" – a private company in Šilutė with a share capital of €50,680 – which was originally founded by Žebelienė and later transferred to her spouse’s leadership. This close family involvement in the construction sector has been transparently declared in her official filings (to prevent conflicts of interest), and historically led to scrutiny by ethics officials when public contracts intersected with their company’s activities.

Local media noted that Žebelienė had connections to private businesses, specifically companies involved in the construction sector, earlier in her career.

In 2025, Tauragė District Court ruled that Daiva Žebelienė had unjustly enriched herself by overclaiming fuel expenses during the 2020–2021 COVID quarantine and ordered her to repay about €6,900 to the Šilutė municipality.

In early 2025, media reports revealed that Žebelienė “could have unjustifiably enriched herself” by claiming fuel compensation for driving distances over 3.5 times longer than she actually traveled. Prosecutors filed a civil case in the Tauragė court, seeking about €7,700 to be returned to Šilutė municipality as improperly obtained funds.

The Chief Official Ethics Commission found that, as a municipal councilor, Žebelienė had mixed public and private interests by signing municipal work contracts on behalf of her own companies.

In May 2025, she defended her stance against a proposed real estate (NT) tax, publicly stating that a person’s first home should not be taxed at all.

Žebelienė stated in 2025 that anyone taking high public office should give up their private business interests, noting she herself stepped away from her businesses years ago when she entered politics.