Valentinas Bukauskas

Valentinas Bukauskas was born on 1962-11-25 in Sukančiai village, Telšiai District, Lithuania.

He is married and has two sons.

His wife is Alina Bukauskienė, with whom he jointly declares family assets in official filings.

He earned a Master’s degree in Business Management in 2019 after studying at Vytautas Magnus University (2017–2019).

He studied at West Lithuanian Business College (now Lithuanian Business College) from 2003 to 2005.

He obtained a diploma in Electrical Technologies in 1988 from the Šiauliai Karolis Didžiulis Polytechnic School (now Šiauliai State College).

He completed his secondary education at Tryškiai Secondary School in 1981.

From 2002 to 2004, he was the director of the private company UAB “Šiaulių skalbykla”.

From 1997 to 2002, he served as the director of UAB “Džiugas”.

He was the director of the private company IĮ “Telšių aeroklubas” from 1989 until 1997.

Early in his career (1983–1989), he worked as an electrician in the power distribution network in Klaipėda.

After leaving the Labour Party in mid-2024, Bukauskas did not join any other political party and has remained unaffiliated (an independent).

After failing to secure re-election to the Seimas in 2024, Bukauskas sought to re-enter local government. In late October 2024, he asked the Central Electoral Commission (VRK) to restore his position on the Telšiai District Council candidates list (Labour Party) so that he could assume a municipal council seat mid-term.

In July 2024, he announced that he was leaving the Labour Party after 20 years as a member.

On July 11, 2024, Bukauskas and fellow MP Andrius Mazuronis joined the Lithuanian Regions Party’s faction in the Seimas, aligning themselves with that parliamentary group after leaving the Labour Party’s ranks.

On June 13, 2024, Bukauskas was elected as the leader (frakcijos seniūnas) of the Labour Party’s parliamentary faction in the Seimas, succeeding Viktor Fiodorovas in that role.

In mid-2024, following the resignation of Andrius Mazuronis as party leader, Valentinas Bukauskas was appointed as the interim Chairman of the Labour Party.

He also served as a member of the 13th Seimas (2020–2024 term).

He was a member of the Seimas’s "Samogitian Group" (Žemaičių grupė), an informal parliamentary group uniting MPs from the Samogitia region to promote the Samogitian language and culture.

In October 2018, Bukauskas joined the Order and Justice (Tvarka ir teisingumas) party’s parliamentary faction, remaining with that faction until June 2019. He then announced his departure from the Order and Justice group to sit with the Seimas Mixed Members’ Group, following a Labour Party decision to withdraw from the coalition.

In late 2018, he quit the Social Democratic Labour Party’s parliamentary faction and became an unaffiliated (mixed group) member, though he continued to support the ruling coalition at the time.

Between October 2017 and April 2018, he served as a Deputy Chairman of the Social Democratic Labour Party (LSDDP) faction in the Seimas, which had formed after a split in the Social Democrats. He was a vice-chair of that parliamentary faction during this period.

He was a Member of the 12th Seimas, serving from 2016 to 2020.

After the 2016 election, Bukauskas initially joined the Social Democratic Party’s parliamentary group; when the group split in 2018, he moved to the Social Democratic Labour Party’s faction in the Seimas.

He served as Acting Chairman of the Labour Party for a brief period in 2015 (from March 17 to May 30, 2015).

He was the First Deputy Chairman of the Labour Party from 2013 to 2015.

In 2013, he was designated as an Honorary Member of the Labour Party.

He served as a Member of the 11th Seimas from 2012 to 2016.

He was a Member of the 10th Seimas (2008–2012).

He has served as a Deputy Chairman of the Labour Party (Party Vice-Chairman) since 2006.

He was the long-time chairman of the Labour Party’s Telšiai District branch, a position he held since 2004.

He served as a Member of the Seimas in the 9th Parliament (term 2004–2008).

Valentinas Bukauskas became a member of the Labour Party in 2004.

He was a member of the Telšiai District Municipal Council from 2000 to 2004.

From 2000 to 2003, he was a member of the Telšiai District Council Board and chaired the council’s Business, Economy and Finance Committee.

In 2019–2020, he served as Deputy Chair of the Seimas Commission for Energy and Sustainable Development.

He was a member of the Seimas Commission for Freedom Fights and State Historical Memory from 2018 to 2020.

During the 11th Seimas (2013–2016), he was the Chair of the Seimas Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities.

He also chaired the Committee on State Administration and Local Authorities for a period during the 9th Seimas (2004–2008).

In 2024, he ran for re-election as an independent candidate in Telšiai, but lost in the second round and did not secure a sixth term in the Seimas.

In the 2023 municipal elections, Bukauskas ran as a Labour Party candidate for Telšiai District Mayor and Council. He did not win the mayoral race, and he declined the municipal council seat, opting to continue serving in the Seimas at that time.

He was re-elected in 2020, again winning the Telšiai single-member constituency (No. 40) as a Labour Party candidate.

He was re-elected as Telšiai’s MP in the 2020 elections. In the second round, Bukauskas narrowly defeated Algirdas Bacevičius, receiving 5,824 votes (~49.99%) to Bacevičius’s 5,405 votes (~46.39%). Bukauskas won by a margin of 419 votes, securing his fifth consecutive term in the Seimas.

In the 2016 Seimas elections, he was elected from the Telšiai single-member constituency (No. 40) as a Labour Party candidate.

Bukauskas consistently appeared near the top of the Labour Party’s candidate list in Seimas elections and benefited from preferential votes. In the 2016 elections, he was initially ranked 13th on the Labour Party’s list but moved up to 7th place after receiving 5,365 pirmumo (preference) votes from voters.

In the 2016 Seimas election, Bukauskas captured the Telšiai single-member constituency in a runoff, winning 7,127 votes (approximately 56.6%) against Social Democratic candidate Vytautas Kleiva, who received 5,472 votes (43.4%).

In 2016, he faced Karolis Martinkus (of the LVŽS) in the Telšiai constituency’s runoff and prevailed by a very thin margin of 248 votes.

In the 2012 Seimas elections, he recaptured the Telšiai single-member seat, defeating Social Democrat Vytautas Kleiva in the runoff by about a 13% margin.

In the 2008 Seimas elections, he did not advance to the runoff in Telšiai (where Gediminas Vagnorius and Almantas Petkus competed in the second round, with Petkus winning the seat). Nonetheless, Bukauskas secured a seat in the 10th Seimas via the Labour Party’s national list.

The Labour Party nominated Valentinas Bukauskas in five Seimas elections (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020).

In the 2004 Seimas elections, Bukauskas was first elected to the Seimas by narrowly defeating former Prime Minister Gediminas Vagnorius in the Telšiai single-member constituency.

By 2019, his declared family assets had risen slightly to €318,539. This included the same €144,810 valuation for real estate, €14,703 in land, €5,026 in other valuable property, about €154,000 in financial savings, and an unpaid loan balance of €30,000.

His primary source of income has been his parliamentary salary. For example, in 2018 an ordinary Seimas member earned about €2,531 per month before taxes, meaning Bukauskas’s annual MP income was on the order of €30,000 (gross). He has not reported significant private business income in his asset declarations.

As of 2017, Bukauskas and his wife Alina declared a total family wealth of €311,802 (after debts), including approximately €144,810 worth of real estate, €14,703 in land holdings, about €5,026 in valuables (art, jewelry, etc.), and €147,263 in cash savings, with an outstanding debt of €31,000.

His asset declarations have not shown any dramatic fluctuations. For example, his total declared assets for 2012 were practically unchanged in 2013, apart from a transfer of LTL 30,000 into cash savings.

In a 2013 disclosure (reflecting 2012 data), Bukauskas reported roughly half a million Lithuanian litai in real estate and about LTL 480,000 in cash savings. His family’s land holdings were valued around LTL 51,000, and he had an outstanding loan of LTL 120,000 at that time.

Around 2009, he was listed among the Seimas members with over a million litai in assets. His declaration at that time showed roughly LTL 1.2 million in total wealth (approximately €350,000).

He has been a member of the international Lions Club since 2000.

He is a member of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union (Šaulių sąjunga).

Explaining his decision to run as an independent in 2024, he said that after competing in five elections with the party, he chose to stand on his own: “...priėmiau sprendimą būti savarankišku kandidatu. Ar tai yra teisingas, ar klaidingas sprendimas, parodys ateitis“ – he stated.

He was awarded the title of “Most Dedicated Samogitian” in 2019.

In 2019, he received a Commemorative Badge for Merits to Samogitia.

In 2015, he was named an Honorary Citizen of the Tryškiai community in Telšiai District.

In 2013, he was honored as an Honorary Citizen of Degaičiai Ward in the Telšiai District.

He received a Badge of Honour in 2013 from the Trade Union of Lithuanian Education Institutions for fostering social partnership and cooperation with educational staff.

By 2007, asset declarations showed Bukauskas owned about 1.36 million Lithuanian litai in assets, placing him among the wealthier ("millionaire") members of the Seimas at that time.

He served in the Soviet Army from 1981 to 1983, prior to beginning his professional and political career.

His personal interests include horticulture and music.