Lithuanian MP receives legal demands from Fegda to retract statements about company

Lithuanian lawmaker Dovilė Šakalienė has received a formal demand from construction company Fegda to publicly retract statements she made about its work, including claims that the road it built to the Rūdninkai military polygon is unusable, LRT reports.

In a Facebook post, Šakalienė called the company’s pressure on elected officials “hard to believe in a democratic EU country” and accused Fegda of attempting to silence legitimate criticism of public-interest projects. The company has demanded she state that it never faced issues obtaining permits for classified work—a claim Šakalienė countered by referencing public statements from the State Security Department.

Fegda also insists Šakalienė acknowledge that the road to Rūdninkai is fully operational without restrictions. She responded with skepticism, pointing to expert reports highlighting serious flaws and complaints from the military about the road’s quality. “Was the repair contract—or God forbid, the redesign decision—just an illusion?” she wrote.

The MP’s legal team has reminded Fegda of Lithuania’s freedom of expression laws, while Šakalienė drew parallels to past controversies involving MG Baltic, suggesting the company’s actions resemble “oligarchic governance” tactics from Lithuania’s early post-Soviet era.

This is not the first such case: conservative politician Mindaugas Lingė has twice received legal demands from Fegda to remove social media posts criticizing the company, including a 2024 comment linking its projects to premature resignations of transport agency officials. Lingė dismissed the claims, arguing his use of “fegdos” as a colloquial term reflected an opinion, not a false statement.

Defects in the Rūdninkai access road were documented immediately after its 2023 completion, though the Defence Ministry did not require Fegda to rebuild it, only to repair it.