Nausėda’s remote work highlights legal gap over leaders’ holidays

President Gitanas Nausėda’s decision to work remotely from Madeira this week has exposed a lack of legal regulation covering holidays and remote work for Lithuania’s heads of state, LRT reports. Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said he saw no problem with the arrangement.

Legal experts say that although state leaders are entitled to rest, the president formally has no holiday entitlement under Lithuanian law. They also question whether the president may work remotely from abroad.

“The law does not provide for the president to work remotely. Under the Constitution, the capital is Vilnius, and the word capital implies that the authorities work there,” said Johanas Baltrimas, an associate professor at Vilnius University’s Faculty of Law.

Baltrimas said that allowing state leaders to take time off was normal, but that the matter was not properly regulated legally and was currently governed largely by custom.

Sinkevičius made his comments after meeting former president Valdas Adamkus at the Turniškės complex, where Adamkus lives. The meeting was also attended by Darius Kuolys, a former adviser to Adamkus who now advises the prime minister.

Adamkus joked that he had expected Sinkevičius to become a permanent neighbour. The prime minister does not plan to move to the complex, but said he might occasionally stay overnight and visit Adamkus when he was there.

“I was hoping I would have a permanent neighbour who, after a hard day’s work, would come over for a glass of wine. It seems that will not happen,” Adamkus said.

Sinkevičius said the meeting was aimed at encouraging dialogue between generations in politics. He also said he wanted Adamkus’s advice and called for greater agreement and unity in Lithuania.

The prime minister offered Adamkus, who will turn 100 in November, an exhibition of Antanas Sutkus’s photographs of the former president, planned at the Palace of the Grand Dukes.

Adamkus traditionally spent winter holidays in Mexico, where he met friends from his youth. Kuolys said the president returned rested and energetic, despite criticism from the media.

Former president Dalia Grybauskaitė did not take holidays, saying that a lighter summer schedule was enough for her. Nausėda has previously worked from Nida and stopped to visit his daughter in South Korea while returning from Japan during his first year as president.

Kuolys said he understood Nausėda’s decision, adding that leaders had a great deal of work and also needed time to rest.