Lithuania’s social democrats delete post defending prime minister after criticising prosecution

The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania removed a social media post defending Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė and criticising the Prosecutor General’s Office just hours after publishing it, LRT reports.

The now-deleted post came after President Gitanas Nausėda publicly questioned why Ruginienė’s government waited until late May to disclose a major data breach at the Centre of Registers, despite officials knowing of the incident much earlier.

In its initial statement, the Social Democratic Party—the largest faction in the ruling coalition—argued that prosecutors, not the prime minister, should have informed the public sooner. “Now they’re trying to claim the prime minister and ministers failed to disclose [the breach],” the party wrote, quoting its leader, Mindaugas Sinkevičius. “But what about those who launched the investigation? Shouldn’t *they* have informed the public?”

The party’s post also questioned whether Ruginienė was expected to “become the Prosecutor General’s press secretary,” adding that high-profile investigations typically involve prosecutors holding press conferences to update the public.

The Prosecutor General’s Office responded later Thursday, stating that the Centre of Registers—as the data controller—was legally responsible for notifying affected individuals, not the prosecution service. “Under GDPR, the obligation to report a personal data breach lies with the data controller where the breach occurred—in this case, the Centre of Registers—not the Prosecutor General’s Office, which is conducting the pre-trial investigation,” the statement read.

The breach involved unauthorised access to over 600,000 real estate registry records, including personal identification numbers, via compromised Migration Department accounts. Authorities believe the hack originated from abroad.

President Nausėda has repeatedly criticised the delayed disclosure, calling the incident a “national security scandal” and rejecting explanations that investigators needed time to develop a tool for citizens to check if their data was compromised. “It’s unacceptable that the public was informed a month or two late,” he said Wednesday after a State Defence Council meeting. “You can’t hide behind the Prosecutor General’s restrictions.”

Ruginienė and Economy Minister Aušrinė Armonaitė have acknowledged learning of the breach on April 3, though they claim its full scale only became clear later. The public was not informed until May 22.

Opposition lawmakers have launched a parliamentary inquiry into the incident, leaving open the possibility of pursuing political accountability based on its findings.