Gitanas Nausėda
Gitanas Nausėda (born 19 May 1964) is a Lithuanian economist, politician and banker who has served as President of Lithuania since 2019. He was previously director of monetary policy at the Bank of Lithuania from 1996 until 2000 and chief economist to the chairman of SEB bankas from 2008 until 2018. Nausėda ran as an independent in the 2019 presidential election, which he won with over 66% of the vote in the runoff. Early life and education. From 1982 to 1987 he studied in Vilnius University, Faculty of Industrial Economics and from 1987 to 1989 in the Faculty  of Economics. From 1990 to 1992 he did a practice at the University of Mannheim in Germany under the DAAD scholarship. He defended his PhD thesis "Income Policy Under Inflation and Stagflation" in 1993. Since 2009 he is an associate professor at Vilnius University Business School. Professional and political career. Having completed his studies, from 1992 to 1993 he worked for the Research Institute for Economics and Privatization. From 1993 to 1994 he worked for the Lithuanian Competition Council as a head of the Financial Markets Department. From 1994 to 2000 he worked at the Bank of Lithuania, initially in  the department regulating the commercial banks and later as a director of the Monetary Policy Department. From 2000 to 2008 he was a chief economist and adviser to the chairman of AB Vilniaus Bankas. From 2008 to 2018 he was the financial analyst as well as chief adviser and later the chief economist for the SEB bankas president. In 2004, he supported the election campaign of the former Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus. Presidency (2019–present). On 17 September 2018, Nausėda announced his candidacy for the 2019 Lithuanian presidential election. He finished just 2,000 votes behind former Finance Minister Ingrida Šimonytė  in the first round, and defeated her in the runoff with 66 percent of the vote. He was officially inaugurated on 12 July. Nausėda presented acting Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis's candidacy to continue his duties on 18 July. By the time he had spent a month in office, Nausėda was considered to be the most trusted politician in Lithuania according to polls conducted by the Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT). Foreign policy. Belarus. In April 2020, President Nausėda and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had their nations' first presidential tête-à-tête in 10 years. Following the Lukashenko government 's crackdown on protesters after the disputed 2020 Belarusian presidential elections (which were widely regarded as unfree and unfair) and the resulting protests, Belarusian opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya fled to Lithuania. Nausėda's leadership during the crisis has been noted for being one that augmented Lithuania's role among European Union nations. On 12 August, he ordered that Lithuania open its borders to all Belarusians for humanitarian purposes. That day, he also presented a plan on the settlement of the crisis, being supported by Latvia and Poland, which consisted of three points that included a call for the creation of  a national council from the Belarusian Government and civilian society. In an interview with "Sky News" on 13 August, he declared Lukashenko as "no longer the legitimate leader". Nausėda has been critical of the safety of the Astravets Nuclear Power Plant in Belarus. In May 2020, during a conference call with Armenian Premier Nikol Pashinyan, he called on Armenia to share its experience with the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant to Belarus over concerns over the Astravets Nuclear Power Plant. On 23 May 2021, in the immediate aftermath of the hijacking of Ryanair flight 4578, where two journalists outspoken against the  Lukashenko regime in Belarus were arrested, Nausėda called for EU recognition of Belarusian airspace as “unsafe for civilian aviation” and the immediate release of the arrested journalist Roman Protasevich. By the evening of May 23 Nausėda has secured the support of both the leaders of Latvia and Estonia in recognising Belarusian airspace as unsafe to enter. Poland. Nausėda has made multiple efforts to engage in better relations with Poland, being seen as a personal ally of the Polish leadership. On 16 July, four days after his inauguration, he visited Warsaw to meet with President Andrzej Duda in his first foreign  visit as president. During the visit, there were calls for him to establish a more personal relationship with the country. He also rejected any attempt by European Union leaders to sanction Poland for its actions in relation to the Supreme Court of Poland and the rest of the country's judiciary. On 22 November, Nausėda and Duda, as well as the First Lady of Poland Agata Kornhauser-Duda participated in the state funeral of commanders and participants in the 1863–1864 uprising against Tsarist rule in Vilnius. During his visit to Vilnius, Duda highlighted the Central European nations' unity importance for  their independence. In January 2020, Nausėda joined Duda in pulling out of 5th World Holocaust Forum, who criticized the event for giving the speaking slot to Russian president Putin, who has himself criticized Poland's WWII history by engaging in a historical revisionist campaign. Russia. During a meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in August, Nausėda urged her to maintain sanctions against Russia. In an interview with LRT on 14 August, he reiterated past positions that a potential meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be "pointless" due to the fact that Lithuania sees "the true danger" and  risks of being on the border with Russia. Ukraine. In November 2019, he referred to the Steinmeier formula suggested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a solution to the Russo-Ukrainian War as being "more profitable for Russia than Ukraine". Taiwan. In January 2022, Nausėda criticized the government's creation of a de facto embassy of Taiwan with the inclusion of "Taiwanese" in the name, an act interpreted by the People's Republic of China as a breach of the One-China policy and resulted in a degradation in political and economic relationships. The President clarified that while he does  not object to the opening of the embassy, he was not consulted on the naming decision. Relations with the Šimonytė Government. During the 2020 parliamentary elections Ingrida Šimonytė, former opponent of Nausėda in the 2019 presidential election, was elected to the position of prime minister. He publicly broke with the government's decision to create a defacto embassy of Taiwan bearing the country's name in the title. International trips as president. Nausėda has welcomed many foreign leaders and dignitaries to Lithuania since taking office, including Latvian President Egils Levits, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Canadian  Governor-General Julie Payette. Personal life. Nausėda's father, Antanas Nausėda (1929–), is an engineer. His mother Stasė Nausėdienė (1932–2014) was a physics and mathematics teacher from the village of Lazdininkai. His sister Vilija (born 1959) is an economist. In 1990, he married Diana Nausėdienė. They have two daughters. In addition to his native Lithuanian, Gitanas Nausėda speaks English, German and Russian. Since 1997 he has been collecting antique books. Controversies. Private household in the Pavilniai Regional Park. Environmentalists have criticized Gitanas Nausėda for building a modern private household in Pavilniai Regional Park, nearby Pūčkoriai exposure—a unique geological object  declared to be a nature monument in 1974. Then-advisor for SEB bankas’, Nausėda replied by stating that he had acquired a legal permit for such a construction to take place here. The Directorate of the Pavilniai Regional Park tried to fight back against this ruling, but to no avail. “It’s a shame that people till this day can’t admit being wrong and that the court had acknowledged this as well. That time I showed good will and did not demand the court to ask money from them for a lawsuit that lasted for 2–3 years. But it  seems people don’t get that,” Nausėda reacted. According to the director of the Directorate of the Pavilniai Regional Park Vida Petiukonienė, even though experts had confirmed that the permit to construct a modern house in the park is not in accordance with the law, the court had ordered to reconcile the project. “This is the reality of life, this is how things work in this world, we can only feel sorry. The situation we are in is one of those ridiculous instances, a mockery of the country, laws, and people who go to work in order to commit to  these laws. In other words, us,” Petiukonienė has commented.