The new Minister of Internal Affairs of Lithuania will be a Pole, Władysław Kondratowicz – current director of the Vilnius District Local Government Administration, previously deputy minister of communications. The composition of the government of Social Democrat Ginatautas Paluckas was approved on Wednesday by the President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda.
Władysław Kondratowicz, who is a member of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, has worked at the Ministry of Communications since 2013 Lithuaniaand then in 2023 he took up the position of director of the Vilnius District Local Government Administration.
– The presence of a Pole in the new government is very good news for the Polish community in Lithuania – said Dr. Andrzej Pukszto from Vytautas the Great University in Kaunas. He explained that “this is not about settling any issues, but about image issues.”
The political scientist recalled that in recent years there was a Pole in virtually every Lithuanian government. In 2012, Jarosław Niewierowicz became the Minister of Energy, in 2019, Jarosław Narkiewicz became the Minister of Communication, and Rita Tamaszuniene became the Minister of Internal Affairs, while for the last four years, Ewelina Dobrowolska was the Minister of Justice.
Pukszto also assessed that “the presence of Poles in the Lithuanian government structures is supported by the growing importance of Poland in our region, the activation of cooperation between the two countries in the field of security, infrastructure development and the good atmosphere of mutual relations.”
Władysław KondratowiczValdemar Doveiko/PAP
The new government of Lithuania
The new government was appointed as a result of the October parliamentary elections. The center-left ruling coalition was formed by three parties: the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (in the parliamentary elections it won 52 seats in the 141-seat Sejm), Świt Niemen (20 seats) and the Democratic Union “In the Name of Lithuania” (14 seats).
The head of Lithuanian diplomacy will be Kestutis Budrys, adviser to President Gitanas Nauseda on national security, while the Ministry of Defense will be headed by an MP from the Social Democratic Party, Dovile Szakeliene.
The swearing-in of the new ministers will take place next week, when the Sejm approves the government program.
Main photo source: Valdemar Doveiko/PAP