VILNIUS: Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda said on Monday he has appointed finance minister Rimantas Sadzius as acting prime minister until a new cabinet has been sworn in, following the resignation of prime minister Gintautas Paluckas.
The prime minister on Monday formally handed in his resignation after announcing on Thursday he would step down amid pressure to do so over his business ties to a company owned by his sister-in-law.
“I instruct …. Rimantas Sadzius to act as prime minister until a new government is formed,” Nauseda said in a decree published by his office.
Analysts expect that the next prime minister will also be picked by Paluckas’ Social Democrat party, but the selection is subject to a majority vote in parliament where the group, the assembly’s largest, holds only 52 out of 141 seats.
Parliament is due to next meet on Sept 10 after its summer recess.