INTRODUCTION
LITHUANIA HOLDS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS, CENTRE-LEFT OPPOSITION WINS
The Social Democratic Party (LSDP) defeated the incumbent conservative Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) in parliamentary elections that concluded on 27th October 2024. The rising cost of living, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and growing conservative social attitudes drove voter behavior. While the LSDP picked up 39 new seats and rose from 13 to 52 seats in the Seimas, the TS-LKD lost 22, dropping from 50 seats to 28. After LSDP party leader Vilija Blinkevičiūtė announced she would not be taking up the post of Prime Minister for reasons of age and health, former party leader Gintautas Paluckas stepped in.
With 141 seats in the Seimas, Paluckas sought to form a governing coalition with the Union of Democrats “For Lithuania” (DSVL) and, controversially, the populist Nemunas Dawn party. The move shocked many, as the LSDP had pledged during the election to keep Nemunas Dawn out of government.
While his criminal trial in the same matter is still ongoing, the Constitutional Court had found Nemunas Dawn leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis guilty of violating his oath of office by making antisemitic remarks (see previous CIVICUS Monitor update). He denies these allegations, claiming he only criticised the state of Israel, not the Jewish people. Following the court ruling in April, he resigned from parliament to avoid impeachment but re-entered through the new elections.
Paluckas claimed the coalition move was necessary in order to secure a stable parliamentary majority. Žemaitaitis also still remains one of the most popular Lithuanian politicians, earning a 41% approval rating in recent polls, placing him ahead of Paluckas with 36%.
BALTIC NATIONS DISCONNECT FROM RUSSIAN POWER GRID, JOIN EU NETWORK
On 8th February 2025, Lithuania, along with Latvia and Estonia, officially severed their connection to the Russian electricity grid and synchronised with the European Union’s power system the next day. This move reinforced their westward alignment nearly two decades after joining the bloc. The Soviet-era grid will continue to supply Russia and Belarus, but the Baltic states, which have not purchased electricity from these countries in recent years, do not expect any outages or price increases.
Ahead of the switchover, leaflets in Russian were distributed in apartment buildings, falsely warning residents of impending blackouts and urging them to stock up on candles. Former Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, who oversaw the transition, dismissed the fears. “The Russians had been threatening our electricity supply for years. This was the last, sad remaining connection from our past that was still partially managed by people in Moscow,” she said.
ASSOCIATION
LITHUANIAN NEO-PAGANS SEEK STATE FINANCIAL SUPPORT AFTER SECURING RECOGNITION
At the beginning of December 2024, Romuva, a religious association based on pagan Baltic traditions, received state recognition from the Seimas. This recognition grants religious associations certain tax and financial benefits, and recognised groups may conduct marriages that are legally valid.
Invoking the existing Law on Religious Communities and Associations, the community’s high priest, Jonas Vaiškūnas, is now lobbying for access to state funding. Currently, 5,100 people identify as members of the faith. However, despite the law entitling all recognised religious communities to state support, an accompanying circular limits funding access to nine recognised traditional religions in Lithuania — an obstacle Vaiškūnas argues must be removed. The circular is set to expire in 2025, at which point it can be revised.
ASSEMBLY
THOUSANDS IN VILNIUS, KAUNAS AND TAURAGE PROTEST INCLUSION OF NEMUNAS DAWN PARTY IN RULING COALITION, ŽEMAITAITIS REACTS ONLINE
In response to the news that Nemunas Dawn, amid allegations of antisemitism, would make up part of the emergent governing coalition, Lithuanians took to the streets to express their opposition in silent protests. Two protests took place in Vilnius in front of the parliament building, drawing crowds of five thousand and two thousand people respectively. Newly appointed Prime Minister Paluckas acknowledged the protesters' right to voice their concerns despite his disagreement with their reasoning. He attended the second rally, urging demonstrators to respect the election results.
In Kaunas, 400 people gathered, while participation in Tauragė remains unknown. Lawyer and writer Justinas Žilinskas and several other activists organised the “Ten Minutes of Silence” campaign and held the first set of rallies on 14th November 2024, the first day of the new Seimas session. They noted that they did not aim to challenge the election results and that their purpose was peaceful, aiming to communicate that antisemitism should be a red line in Lithuanian politics. There were no reports of misconduct or altercations with police.
Nemunas Dawn leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis dismissed the protests as orchestrated by the outgoing ruling conservative party, Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD), calling them “Lithuania’s new Hamas.” In Facebook posts, he called on people to gather outside the house of Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania’s first post-independence head of state and former leader of the TS-LKD, and light candles “as a protest against his actions against the Republic of Lithuania!”. These remarks led to a pre-trial investigation into defamation and incitement of hatred, which was ultimately terminated and no charges were filed, as prosecutors determined that his statements fell within the legal limits of political criticism.
PRO-LGBTQI+ PROTESTS OUTSIDE SEIMAS PRESSURE RULING PARTY TO FULFIL ITS PROMISES
Ahead of the Seimas elections, around 30 protesters from Rhythms of Resistance gathered outside parliament on 5th October 2024. They urged voters to act responsibly and voiced frustration over the then-ruling Homeland Union’s failure to fulfil its promise to legalise same-sex partnerships.
Participants distributed booklets outlining a legal agenda to support LGBTQI+ couples. The recommendations extended beyond partnership recognition, including tax exemptions on property gifts between partners, removing the requirement of a gender identity disorder diagnosis for hormone therapy access, and securing the right to joint property ownership. No police altercations or misconduct were reported.
EXPRESSION
OPEN LETTER PENNED BY OVER 30 NGOS URGE EXCLUSION OF NEMUNAS DAWN FROM GOVERNING COALITION OVER ANTISEMITISM ALLEGATIONS
The European Movement and the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights, supported by more than 30 NGOs and networks, published an open letter in early November calling on Lithuania’s Social Democrats to exclude Nemunas Dawn from the emerging ruling coalition due to the ongoing criminal trial against its leader for antisemitic remarks. They warned that the party’s inclusion would endanger human rights, democracy, and national security. Hate speech is not protected under freedom of expression laws.
HIGHEST COURT RULES BAN ON INFORMING MINORS ABOUT SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
On 18th December 2024, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Lithuanian law which prohibits informing minors about same-sex relationships violates freedom of expression protections under Article 25 of the Constitution. The court stated that these protections require minors to have access to objective information that reflects real social relationships, enabling them to develop a worldview that upholds the rights and dignity of others. Since 2009, the Law on the Protection of Minors from Negative Effects of Public Information had banned depictions of LGBTQI+ families in the public sphere.
The court also found the law incompatible with Article 38 of the Constitution, which defines family as the foundation of society and mandates state protection and support. Constitutional Court President Gintaras Goda affirmed that “no legal regulation may be introduced which implies that information on any family models and relationships between individuals is in itself inappropriate for minors.” This ruling follows a 2023 appeal to reconsider the law, as previously reported by the CIVICUS Monitor.
In a related development, in February 2025, several MPs from the Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) proposed including the long-debated civil union bill in the parliamentary agenda for the spring session, which begins on 10th March 2025. The legislation aims to regulate relationships between unmarried couples, including same-sex partners.
During the previous Seimas term (2020–2024), the bill advanced through several stages but failed to secure final approval. Proponents hope renewed efforts will finally lead to its adoption.
SEIMAS APPROVES CHANGES TO FUNDING MODEL FOR NATIONAL RADIO AND TELEVISION, TIES TO GDP WHILE SECURING FUNDING FLOORS
In July 2024, Lithuanian parliamentarians voted in favour of a proposal introduced by TS-LKD MP Mindaugas Lingė, Chairman of the Seimas Budget and Finance Committee, to link national budget funding for Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) to gross domestic product (GDP). For the measure to pass, a second vote is required.
While the proposal introduces uncertainty into LRT funding, it does not fully replace the existing model. One percent of personal income tax and 1.3 percent of excise tax revenue will still be allocated to LRT, but these funds will now be limited by GDP growth from the previous year. To mitigate instability, funding floors have been set based on LRT’s average budget over the past three years.
LRT board member Jonas Staselis called this change a “blow to the country's democracy”. The European Broadcasting Union and other international organisations have expressed emphatic opposition to the funding proposal, describing it as a threat to the public broadcaster. Since nominal GDP does not account for inflation or price changes, tying funding to it could create severe financial instability. In a statement to the Baltic News Service (BNS), LRT emphasised that this precarity poses particular risk given Lithuania’s security risks due to its proximity to Ukraine.
DEFENCE MINISTER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST TIKTOK
In January 2025, Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė criticised her own party, the Social Democrats (LSDP), for using TikTok, amid growing international concerns over the platform’s risks. She argued that her stance has “nothing to do with freedom of information”, stating, “Disinformation isn’t part of the freedom of information.”
A 2023 National Cyber Security Centre report had already advised against using TikTok on official devices, citing risks to digital data and information security. This warning extends to political organisations, yet several parties, including Nemunas Dawn, Democrats “For Lithuania”, and the Liberal Movement, continue to use the platform. Reports estimate that around 54 percent of Lithuanian internet users are on TikTok.
JOURNALISTS IN LITHUANIA AND NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES TARGETED WITH PEGASUS SPYWARE
In May 2024, NGO Access Now published a report which uncovered at least seven incidents of state-sponsored Pegasus spyware attacks against journalists in the Baltic region. Two of the victims, a Belarusian and a Russian journalist, live in Vilnius. For security reasons, their names have not been mentioned in this report. While the attackers' identities remain unknown, research suggests that a single Pegasus spyware operator may be responsible for some, if not all, of the incidents.
The Belarusian journalist’s device was infected with Pegasus spyware on or around 25th March 2021—“Freedom Day”, which marks Belarus’s declaration of independence and is frequently suppressed by authorities. A Russian journalist living in exile in Lithuania was also targeted on or around 15th June 2023, just before they attended an event in Riga, Latvia, which emphasised the need for better digital security measures to combat threats faced by media professionals.