Robertas Šarknickas

Robertas Šarknickas was born on 7 December 1974 in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Robertas Šarknickas is married to a woman named Agnė, and they have two daughters, Patricija and Julija.

He spent his childhood in orphanages in Šiauliai and Obeliai (Rokiškis district) after growing up without parents.

Robertas Šarknickas is a teacher, theatre and film actor, director, and an Alytus city politician.

He obtained a teaching certificate in 2014.

He graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) as a stage and screen actor in 2003.

He underwent a traineeship in the construction sector in Leipzig, Germany in 1996.

In 1989, he completed studies at the Agricultural Technical School in Alanta, Molėtai District (now the Alanta School of Technology and Business).

He was the director of the public film studio “VšĮ Kino studija A” from 2009 to 2014.

He served as the Chief Ethnographer at the Culture Centre of Alytus District from 2006 to 2009.

From 2003 to 2015, he worked as a teacher at secondary schools in Alytus, including Šv. Benedikto Gymnasium and Adolfo Ramanausko-Vanago Gymnasium.

From 2003 to 2015, he also worked as a teacher at Panemunė Secondary School in Alytus.

He was an actor and stage director at the Alytus City Theatre from 1996 to 2003.

He has directed films and created nine documentary films.

He had an acting role in the Lithuanian feature film “Ekskursantė” (The Excursionist).

He was re-elected and served as a Member of the Seimas from 2020 to 2024 (13th Seimas).

Since 2018 he has been a member of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS).

He has served as the Head of the Alytus City division of the LVŽS party since 2018.

He served as a Member of the Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament) during the 2016–2020 legislative term (12th Seimas).

He was a member of the Alytus City Municipal Council from 2015 to 2016.

He was a member of the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) from 2006 until 2016.

He served as Deputy Chair of the Seimas Committee on Culture from December 2020 until November 2024.

He was Chair of the Seimas Commission for Suicide and Violence Prevention from 2018 to 2020.

He served as a member of the Seimas Commission for the Rights of People with Disabilities in 2017–2018.

He was a member of the Seimas Committee on Culture during the 2016–2020 term.

He was a member of the Seimas Migration Commission from 2016 to 2018.

In the 2024 parliamentary elections, he ran in the Alytus single-member constituency, garnering only 11.62% of the vote and placing third, thus failing to secure a seat.

He was a candidate in the 2024 elections to the European Parliament, appearing as number 8 on the LVŽS party list.

He ran for the position of Alytus city mayor in the March 2023 municipal elections as the LVŽS candidate, but received only about 3.6% of the vote (approximately 800 votes), failing to advance.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, Šarknickas was listed 21st on the LVŽS national candidate list (after preferential voting he moved up to the 20th position). He did not win a single-member constituency seat that year, but entered the 13th Seimas via the party list, taking a mandate that became available when higher-ranked LVŽS candidates won in single-member districts.

He was re-elected to the Seimas in 2020 via the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union’s national party list.

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, he won the Alytus single-member constituency (No. 30) with 60.99% of the vote (run-off).

As a Member of the Seimas from 2016 to 2024, Šarknickas received a base parliamentary salary of approximately €2,183 per month “take-home,” which rose to about €3,781 net per month by 2024 after a pay reform.

During his teaching career in Alytus (2003–2015), his earnings were modest; in the mid-2010s a Lithuanian secondary school teacher’s average salary was on the order of €400–€500 per month net (estimated).

Šarknickas’s annual asset declarations over the last decade show no extraordinary wealth – he has reported only ordinary personal assets (such as a family home, a car, and savings from his public sector pay) and no major business holdings or unusual income sources.

He was involved in a project of the Save the Children Lithuania organization in 2013–2014.

In November 2024, he announced that he was suspending his membership in the LVŽS, citing ongoing internal feuds (“bullying among leaders”) within the party.

A 2018 Ethics and Procedures Commission inquiry found that Šarknickas had not declared any contracts or income related to the publication of his memoir (initially published by Versus aureus in 2015 and reprinted by Alma littera in 2017), potentially violating public interest disclosure rules.

In 2018, Šarknickas was involved in a charity project distributing national folk costumes to children in Alytus (through Ramūnas Karbauskis’s “Švieskime vaikus” foundation), which led to a Central Electoral Commission (VRK) inquiry over potential hidden political campaigning. The VRK noted he took part in an event on 27 February 2018 at an Alytus kindergarten that was not listed in his official Seimas schedule.

On 12 January 2018, he skipped a Seimas plenary session to present his memoir “Šarkos sielos šauksmas” at an event in Anykščiai, where he sold copies of the book to attendees, raising questions about a conflict with his parliamentary duties.

An investigation by LRT in 2018 revealed that Šarknickas was a co-founder and officially still the head of the public film studio “Kino studija-A” in Alytus – a role he had not listed in his parliamentary interests declaration – though he contended that the studio had been inactive since he became an MP in 2016.

He produced the film “Nepalikit, prašau” (“Don’t Leave, Please”) about orphans, which was nominated for the Silver Crane award in 2009.

He won the Alytus City Culture Prize in 2006 and again in 2009.

He is the author of the memoir book “Šarkos sielos šauksmas” (“Magpie Soul’s Cry”), published in 2015.

He organized a photography exhibition titled “Ukraina mano akimis” (“Ukraine in My Eyes”) in 2004.