Lithuania bids farewell to former prime minister Kazimira Prunskienė

Lithuania is holding a state funeral for Kazimira Danutė Prunskienė, the first prime minister of independent Lithuania, with her urn due to be taken from St John’s Church to Antakalnis Cemetery in Vilnius for burial at Signatories’ Hill, LRT reports.

Members of the public, politicians, former colleagues and ministers paid their respects to Prunskienė on Wednesday and Thursday. Her family held a private farewell ceremony on Saturday.

Politicians who attended the ceremony said Prunskienė would be remembered for her professional leadership of the government during the difficult period when Lithuania was consolidating its independence, as well as for meetings with Western leaders. They said unofficially circulating allegations of former cooperation with the KGB would not overshadow her role in Lithuania’s political history.

Prunskienė, who had worked as an economics lecturer, entered politics through the Lithuanian Reform Movement. Before that, she belonged to the Communist Party of Lithuania.

She was elected to the Supreme Council-Reconstituent Seimas in 1990 and served as Lithuania’s prime minister from 1990 to 1991.

Prunskienė was one of the founders of the Women’s Party, which later changed its name and merged with the Peasants’ Party. Ramūnas Karbauskis became its deputy leader while she was chair, and the political force eventually became the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union.

Prunskienė also served as agriculture minister. In 2004, she sought to become Lithuania’s first woman president, reaching the second round and receiving 46.66 percent of the vote, but losing to Valdas Adamkus. She also unsuccessfully ran in the 2009 election.

Prunskienė left politics in 2012 after suffering a stroke and undergoing brain surgery. Health problems prevented her from returning to public life after rehabilitation, and her family cared for her.