Politicians invoke cooling-off rules despite inconsistent practice

LRT reported that Lithuania’s political cooling-off principle is being used in disputes over judicial and institutional appointments, even as politicians themselves do not always follow the standard they demand.

Former Interior Minister Eimutis Misiūnas has spent years trying to prove in court that President Gitanas Nausėda had no grounds not to appoint him as a judge. Misiūnas is also seeking compensation for the alleged harm.

Nausėda has rejected the claim, saying Misiūnas had recently taken part in elections and party activities.

“I simply cannot acknowledge this, because Mr Misiūnas directly participated in the elections and directly participated in party activities. […] It is difficult for me to reconcile that with the possibility of putting on a judge’s robe almost the very next day,” Nausėda said.

The president said Misiūnas should have been subject to a political cooling-off period. Misiūnas’s complaints were rejected several times by Lithuanian courts. Later, the Strasbourg court ruled that Lithuania had violated his right to challenge the president’s decision and awarded him 10,000 euros from the state.

A Lithuanian court has now issued another ruling against the former minister.

“Since the claimant had just taken part in the parliamentary elections with a political party, the court believes that the president could reasonably have had certain doubts about his political neutrality,” said Linas Zinkevičius, a judge at the Vilnius Regional Court.

Misiūnas’s lawyer disagreed, arguing that the Law on Courts allows a person to serve as a minister and later return to judicial office without a selection process.

“The court is now saying that by holding that office, you acquired political warmth,” the lawyer said. Misiūnas’s side plans to apply to the Strasbourg court again.

Misiūnas’s case is not the first time Nausėda has cited political cooling-off. The president previously refused to appoint former Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius and former Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis as ambassadors to Washington and Brussels after their terms in office had ended.

Ramūnas Vilpišauskas, a professor at Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science, said the argument had created a basis for it to be used against candidates proposed by the president himself.

The opposition cited the principle when Nausėda nominated Irena Segalovičienė, a former adviser in the president’s team, as state controller.

Former Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė also criticised the president’s consideration of appointing adviser Simonas Krėpšta as chair of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania. Krėpšta ultimately became a board member.

At the same time, Stasys Šedbaras, who had worked in the parliamentary faction of the conservatives, became a justice of the Constitutional Court. The president said the appointment could set a precedent for attempts to politicise the court.

“I have not belonged to any party structures for four years. I am completely independent and autonomous,” Šedbaras previously said.

Saulius Spurga, an associate professor at Mykolas Romeris University, said moving from politics to the Constitutional Court could create problems because members of parliament adopt, draft and vote on laws that the court may later examine.

The Social Democrats had initially agreed not to support Šedbaras’s candidacy. Nearly three years later, however, they themselves nominated their fellow party member and parliamentarian Julius Sabatauskas to the Constitutional Court. He would have become a justice if the court had not ruled that serving as a member of parliament was not legal work.

The issue is also being examined by the Chief Official Ethics Commission in the case of Matas Drukteinis, who is seeking to become head of the Philharmonic after working as deputy culture minister two months earlier.