Lithuania’s governing Social Democratic Party put forward Inga Ruginiene, the current Minister for Social Security and Labour, as its candidate for prime minister late on August 6.

As reported by bne IntelliNews, Gintautas Paluckas resigned last week, following a series of revelations about shady business dealings.

Ruginiene was chosen by the party's presidium after other potential contenders, including Transport Minister Eugenijus Sabutis and party leader Mindaugas Sinkevicius, declined, BNS, a Lithuanian news agency, and LRT.lt reported on August 6.

Sabutis pulled out during the meeting itself, and the other previously mentioned figures also opted not to enter the race.

“The Social Democrats are now mostly worried about the reputational damage that Paluckas has caused. So Ruginiene, a woman, a younger-generation politician with no obvious skeletons in the closet is the best option in the situation,” Vytautas Dumbliauskas, a prominent Lithuanian political analyst, told bne IntelliNews.

Ruginiene, who now stands as the Social Democrats' nominee for PM, made it clear that defence spending would remain a key priority under her leadership.

"We won't be changing direction. I see a strong defence priority in Lithuania. Security must be ensured. We see what’s happening. We see people are genuinely worried. So this direction is especially important," she told BNS in an interview.

Paluckas, who led the government until stepping down last week, had committed to spending 5.25% of GDP on defence in the coming year.

Ruginiene also addressed past visits to Russia after the annexation of Crimea, noting her family ties to both Russia and Ukraine. She said the trips were personal and occurred before the outbreak of war.

"I have visited [Russia] in my life, and I’m not going to hide that," Ruginiene said. "My husband and I looked into the dates, because I suspected this question might come up. As far as we recall, we went in 2018 and possibly also in 2015. Both trips were purely private,” LRT.lt reported.

She added that her grandmother’s side of the family came from Ukraine, while her grandfather had been deported to Siberia after the Second World War, where he later met her grandmother.

"After the war, the family split – it was the Soviet Union then – and a small part ended up in Russia," she said, LRT.lt reported.

Ruginiene acknowledged speculation about her Russian accent but stressed her Lithuanian roots.

"I was born in Trakai and grew up in Vilnius, in a neighbourhood where both Lithuanian and Russian were commonly spoken," she said, according to LRT.lt. "I spent every summer in my childhood in Ukraine, in the Kharkiv region, in the now-destroyed city of Kramatorsk. People spoke Russian there, not Ukrainian. I heard a lot of Russian – maybe that’s why my Lithuanian isn’t perfect, and why people raise questions.” 

However, some opposition MPs, like Conservative Zygimantas Povilionis, hastened to say that it is Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus' Aleksander Lukashenko, who are “happy” with the SD candidate.

Ruginiene, 44, entered parliament for the first time in 2024. Before that, she led the Lithuanian Confederation of Trade Unions.

With a new PM, the entire cabinet – which stepped down officially on August 4 – will need to be restructured, and the three-party coalition agreement renegotiated.

The smallest party in the coalition, the Democratic Union “For Lithuania”, has suggested the lineup might need to be revised, possibly excluding the Nemunas Dawn party. However, analysts remain doubtful about any significant shakeups in government or coalition makeup.

The coalition currently holds 86 of the 141 seats in the Seimas. The Social Democrats are the largest bloc with 52 seats, followed by Nemunas Dawn with 19 and the Democrats with 15.