Lithuania

Lithuania has had three governments since the 2024 Seimas election. Gintautas Paluckas of the Social Democrats, confirmed as Prime Minister in November 2024 at the head of a coalition that included Nemuno aušra (Dawn of Nemunas), announced his resignation on 31 July 2025. Inga Ruginienė’s government, in which the Social Democrats again governed with Nemuno aušra, took office on 25 September 2025 and resigned on 23 June 2026, after the Social Democrats ended their cooperation with Nemuno aušra.

On 30 June 2026 the Seimas approved Mindaugas Sinkevičius as Prime Minister by 80 votes to 2, with 28 abstentions. His coalition, comprising the Social Democrats, the Democrats “For Lithuania” and the joint parliamentary group of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union and the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania–Christian Families Alliance, holds 75 of the 141 seats. The government was sworn in on 14 July.

Reporters Without Borders ranks Lithuania 15th of 180 in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index with a score of 81.34, against 14th and 82.27 in 2025, and notes increased political pressure on the public broadcaster LRT and the weakening of safeguards protecting its independence.

Proposals by the ruling coalition to change LRT’s funding and governance prompted sustained protests. Police estimated that about 10,000 people rallied outside the Seimas on 9 December 2025; protests continued until April 2026, and a petition gathered more than 145,000 signatures. On 22 January 2026 the European Parliament adopted, by 385 votes to 165, with 35 abstentions, a resolution describing the freezing and reduction of LRT’s funding as political pressure in the absence of objective economic necessity and calling for European Commission scrutiny of Lithuania’s compliance with the European Media Freedom Act. The Commission’s 2026 rule of law chapter describes the governance and funding framework of the public broadcaster as challenging.

State Media Monitor maps one Lithuanian outlet: Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), classified Independent State Funded (ISF) in the 2026 review cycle after Independent Public (IP) from 2022 to 2025. The reclassification reflects the suspension of LRT’s previous tax-linked financing formula and its replacement with fixed annual appropriations for 2026–2028, weakening the broadcaster’s financial independence.

On 27 November 2025 the Seimas adopted, by 70 votes to none with two abstentions, a proposal to hold LRT’s appropriations for 2026–2028 at the 2025 level of EUR 79.6 million, against about EUR 88.2 million that the formula would have provided in 2026, and to lower the tax-linked shares from 2029. The Constitutional Court accepted a petition against the freeze on 5 February 2026, and on 8 October Sinkevičius asked the Ministry of Culture to review the funding model.

A coalition bill to make dismissing the Director General easier was slowed after President Gitanas Nausėda said such changes could not be made under an expedited procedure. The Venice Commission recommended in March 2026 maintaining the existing qualified majority for dismissal and reviewing the funding freeze. The revised law, adopted on 2 June 2026 by 77 votes to 1 with the opposition not taking part, retains the two-thirds Council majority for dismissal but adds new grounds that apply to the serving Director General, Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė. From 2027 the Council will have 15 members appointed for four years. The Constitutional Court accepted a petition challenging the law on 23 September 2026.

In September a Council majority found that Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė had improperly performed her duties by failing to disclose the identities of individual service providers in programme procurement reports, without classifying it as a gross breach; she asked the Council in October 2026 to reconsider.

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