Žemaitaitis dismisses VRK links and demands Ignitis board resign

LRT reported Friday that Remigijus Žemaitaitis, leader of the Nemunas Dawn party, called media reports about links between the party and Central Electoral Commission member Laura Matjošaitytė absurd.

His comments followed a report by the Delfi news portal that Matjošaitytė had advised Nemunas Dawn on membership fees and helped prepare the party’s response to the commission before returning as a commission member.

“It is completely absurd, an unhealthy storm deliberately whipped up,” Žemaitaitis told Žinių radijas. He said he hoped the Chief Official Ethics Commission and other authorities would clarify the matter and bring the controversy to an end.

Žemaitaitis said party representatives had spoken briefly with Matjošaitytė during the 2024 parliamentary election campaign. He described their meeting as more like passing each other in a corridor and said the lawyer had not received money from Nemunas Dawn.

Matjošaitytė became a member of the Central Electoral Commission in May last year but did not publicly declare that she had advised Nemunas Dawn. After initially declining to say whether she had been paid by the party, she said on Thursday that she had not earned any money.

Matjošaitytė has said she did not face a conflict of interest when the commission considered matters related to Nemunas Dawn. She said that after returning to the commission, she no longer provided consultations to political organisations.

Matjošaitytė chaired the commission from 2017 to 2021. Her candidacy and that of lawyer Maksim Reznikov for commission positions were submitted by then Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus, who had been delegated by Nemunas Dawn.

In May 2025, the newly formed commission considered breaches related to Nemunas Dawn’s political campaign financing. Matjošaitytė voted that the party had committed breaches in some ballots and abstained in others. She said the votes did not create a conflict of interest or grounds for her to recuse herself.

The Chief Official Ethics Commission said earlier this week that it would assess whether to open an investigation into a possible breach of the Law on the Coordination of Public and Private Interests.

Žemaitaitis calls for Ignitis board to be dismissed

Nearly two weeks after a powerful storm battered the country, with some consumers still without electricity, Žemaitaitis said Finance Minister Tauras Valys should express no confidence in the board of Ignitis Group, a state-owned energy group.

“Today, the finance minister should express no confidence in the entire Ignitis board. It should be dismissed because the board failed to ensure the functioning of the company,” Žemaitaitis said, referring to the group’s subsidiary, Energy Distribution Operator.

He also said Renaldas Radvila, head of the subsidiary, bore responsibility. Žemaitaitis questioned why consumers should cover losses through their electricity payments when the company had paid dividends, and said the same director had faced a similar situation after a previous storm.

Presidential adviser Ramūnas Dilba said on Thursday that the situation of people who remained without electricity after the storm could be described as critical. Energy Minister Lukas Savickas said the slow restoration of electricity had exposed clear gaps in preparedness for such emergencies.