Gitanas Nausėda met Mindaugas Sinkevičius at the presidential palace in Vilnius on Wednesday evening and said he had asked him directly whether history would repeat itself. The question was a clear allusion to former prime minister Gintautas Paluckas, who resigned earlier in the current parliamentary term after past controversies came to light.
"The answer was that it would not happen again," Nausėda told reporters after the meeting. "If it did, it would above all be a blow to me. I will not hide it, it would be a great moral blow to me. I want to trust a person, especially when I am proposing them for the post of prime minister. But it would also be a catastrophic blow to his own political career. I can see that Sinkevičius understands this perfectly well."
The president said he was taking Sinkevičius at his word. "If a person has decided to go ahead, it means they are at peace with their past, their present and, probably, their future, though we can never be one hundred percent certain," he added.
Cabinet priorities
The two men discussed the priorities of the incoming government. Nausėda said defence and security must remain the top focus, with defence spending kept at between 5-6% of GDP. He also raised demographic challenges, regional policy, and the need for systemic reform of the health sector.
