Vilnius bids farewell to Lithuania’s first post-independence prime minister

Vilnius is holding a farewell ceremony on Saturday for Kazimira Danutė Prunskienė, a signatory of Lithuania’s Independence Act and the first head of the government of restored independent Lithuania, LRT reported. Prunskienė died on Thursday in her 84th year.

Lithuanian leaders said Prunskienė was one of the most important figures in building the restored state. They credited her with contributing to the restoration of independence, the creation of the country’s first state institutions and economic reforms, and Lithuania’s international recognition.

Before entering politics, Prunskienė worked as an economist at a house construction plant in 1964 and 1965. She graduated with honours from Vilnius University in 1965 with a degree in economics and worked there for 21 years as a lecturer, senior lecturer and later associate professor. She also conducted academic work at universities in Hungary and other countries.

From 1990 to 1992, Prunskienė served as a deputy in the Supreme Council Reconstituent Seimas after being elected in the Verkiai constituency as a candidate of Sąjūdis, Lithuania’s reform movement. She worked on the council’s Economics Commission.

She served as prime minister from 1990 to 1991, becoming Lithuania’s first woman prime minister. In 1990, she was the first Lithuanian politician to meet US President George Bush, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President François Mitterrand. Following those meetings, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was forced to negotiate with Lithuania.

In 1993, Prunskienė established a private consulting firm, where she served as president and business consultant for three years. She later worked as a professor at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, although it was not her main place of employment.

Prunskienė founded and chaired the Lithuanian Women’s Party, which later became the New Democracy Party. In 2001, she became chair of the Union of Peasants and New Democracy Parties. She was elected to the Seimas in single-member constituencies in 1996 and 2000.

In 2001, she received Germany’s highest distinction, the Grand Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. She published more than 400 academic articles on economics in the Lithuanian and foreign press and authored dozens of books.

In 2005, the Union of Peasants and New Democracy Parties decided to rename itself the Lithuanian Peasants Popular Union, and Prunskienė was elected its chair. The party failed to clear the five percent threshold in the 2008 parliamentary election, although it won three seats in single-member constituencies.

Prunskienė also sought the presidency. In the 2004 election, she advanced to the second round with Valdas Adamkus after a strong first-round result, but finished second after receiving 46.66 percent of the vote. She ran again in 2009 as an independent candidate and finished fifth, while Dalia Grybauskaitė won in the first round.

Prunskienė, who raised three children, left politics in 2012.