Saulius Skvernelis

Born in Kaunas, Skvernelis graduated from the Vilnius Technical University in 1994 and started working at the Lithuania Police Academy.

In 1998 Skvernelis started his career in the Lithuanian law enforcement system, working as a traffic police inspector in Trakai District Municipality. Gradually rising through the ranks, he became the general commissioner of the Lithuanian police on 7 March 2011.[2]

On 5 November 2014, President Dalia Grybauskaitė appointed Skvernelis as the Minister of the Interior, with the parliament confirming the appointment on 11 November. Skvernelis replaced Dailis Alfonsas Barakauskas in the role.[2] He was nominated to the position by Order and Justice, which was part of the ruling coalition, despite not being a member of the party.

During 2015 and 2016, Skvernelis became one of the most popular politicians in Lithuania.[3] In March 2016, Skvernelis announced he would participate in the October 2016 elections to the Seimas on the electoral list of Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, a party with only one seat in the outgoing parliament.[4][5][6][7] As a result, he was forced to resign as the Minister of the Interior, to be replaced by Tomas Žilinskas.[8]

Although not a member of the party, Skvernelis headed the electoral list of the Farmers and Greens, leading them to a surprisingly convincing victory in the elections in October. The party won 22.45% of valid votes in the nationwide constituency (finishing close second), but finished with 54 of the 141 seats in the Seimas, thanks to solid performances in single-member constituencies. Skvernelis was elected to the Seimas in the single-member constituency of Karoliniškės in Vilnius.[9]

In the subsequent coalition negotiations between Farmers and Greens and the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, it was agreed that Skvernelis would become the Prime Minister of Lithuania.[10] He was appointed as Prime Minister by President Dalia Grybauskaitė on 22 November 2016, having been confirmed by the Seimas,[11] and assumed the office on 13 December 2016, when the Seimas approved the program of the Skvernelis Cabinet. On 14 February 2018, appearing at an LGBT rally in Vilnius, he called on the Seimas to recognise same-sex partnerships.[12]

On February 25, 2011 Skvernelis was assigned as the General Commissioner of Police of Lithuania.[13] He was heavily criticised in 2012, while implementing court ruling, police transferred a girl back to the custody of her biological mother with the help of 240 police officers.[14] Earlier the girl had been testifying against the mother in a pedophilia case, which created big tensions in the society.[15]

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