Freedom Party names youngest-ever mayoral candidate in Klaipėda

Lithuania’s Freedom Party has nominated Klaipėda branch chairman Kirilas Veseljevas to run for mayor in the 2027 municipal elections, making him the youngest candidate in the country’s history, LRT reported.

Party chairman Vytautas Mitalas said the decision was intended to encourage young people to take part in governing the city. He said Klaipėda was losing young residents and that its leaders had failed to address the problem.

The party said Klaipėda Mayor Arvydas Vaitkus stated publicly in 2023 that only about 200 of the city’s roughly 1,800 school-leavers remained there. Veseljevas said the future of young people should become the city’s top priority, adding that Klaipėda needed young doctors, teachers, business owners, creative workers and other specialists.

Veseljevas said his candidacy was not intended to pit generations against each other. He said young people should have a voice in key decisions and that experience and new perspectives should complement one another.

The Freedom Party said it would present its candidates for the Klaipėda City Municipal Council in the near future. The next municipal council and mayoral elections are scheduled for March 7, 2027.