Matjošaitytė says Nemuno aušra paid her nothing

Laura Matjošaitytė, a member of Lithuania’s Central Electoral Commission, said Thursday that she had received “not a single euro” from the Nemuno aušra political party for consultations, LRT reports.

“First of all, I had no contractual relationship with the party mentioned in the public sphere. That is a fact. The second important aspect is that I have not received a single euro from this party. That is also a fact,” Matjošaitytė told the commission at the end of its meeting.

She was responding to a report by the Delfi news portal that she had advised Nemuno aušra members on membership fees and helped prepare the party’s response to the commission before returning to the body.

Matjošaitytė, a lawyer who became a commission member in May 2025, did not publicly declare that work. She also did not disclose whether she had been paid, saying the information was related to her professional activities as a lawyer.

She cited confidentiality and professional secrecy requirements arising from the Law on the Bar of Lithuania, saying that these rules also covered whether a person had approached a lawyer.

“I cannot choose these things myself. Therefore, I cannot comment on circumstances related to my professional activities as a lawyer. Under the applicable legal framework, professional secrecy also covers the fact of whether or not someone approached a lawyer,” she said.

Matjošaitytė said it was important that the other commission members were aware of these issues. She did not allow them to ask questions, saying she had to attend another meeting.

Matjošaitytė chaired the commission from 2017 to 2021. She returned as a member in May 2025 after her candidacy and that of lawyer Maksimas Reznikovas were submitted by then-Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus, who had been delegated by Nemuno aušra.

Earlier this week, Matjošaitytė rejected claims of a special relationship with the party, saying she had no particular obligations to any political party or electoral committee.

In May 2025, the newly formed commission considered alleged violations involving Nemuno aušra’s political campaign financing. Matjošaitytė voted in favour of finding violations in some decisions and abstained in others. She said the votes did not create a conflict of interest or grounds for her to recuse herself because she had stopped providing consultations to political organisations after returning to the commission.

At the beginning of this week, Lithuania’s Chief Official Ethics Commission said it would assess whether to open an investigation into a possible violation of the Law on the Coordination of Public and Private Interests.