According to the country's leader, Žukauskas' material should be evaluated by law enforcement agencies. If the published information is confirmed, it could have serious consequences for the current coalition.
„First of all, I take accusations of this nature seriously. I hope that enough information has been gathered to allow the authorities to conduct further analysis. However, the information itself or its receipt does not necessarily mean that it has been thoroughly verified and is completely accurate,“ said the president.
„If they (the authorities – Lrytas) assess this information as reliable and truly reflecting reality, then the consequences should be very clear,“ he explained.
Susiję straipsniai
Nausėda said he could not imagine that, if the services confirmed the information, those in power would consider it as another drop in the bucket.
„I can't imagine – if this issue were to be treated as yet another drop in the bucket of patience – it would no longer be a drop, it would be a whole bucket,“ he said vividly.
„And once this bucket is poured into that cup, it is full to the brim. I think this is more than obvious,“ Nausėda concluded.
As announced this week, communications expert Žukauskas, who spoke about the questionable sources of funding for the ruling Nemuno Aušra party, announced that he had discovered a scheme by which large sums of money could have ended up in the budget of the organisation led by Žemaitaitis in the summer of 2024.
Žukauskas suspects that this is possibly „black money,“ fake donations totalling EUR 130,000. He believes that those who paid the party membership fee may not have done so from their own funds.
The communications specialist promises to pass on the information he has gathered to law enforcement and the Central Election Commission (VRK)
For his part, Robertas Puchovičius, Vice-Chairman of Nemuno Aušra, told the Lrytas portal that the information published by Žukauskas is pure fiction.
However, before announcing the questionable financing scheme, Žukauskas claimed to have experimented with this week – pretending to be a colleague of the party's financier, he called people who had donated to Nemuno Aušra in 2024. The communications expert shared 11 recordings of conversations which, in his opinion, cast doubt on the transparency of Nemuno Aušra's financing.
Žukauskas made these calls after the prosecutor's office decided in early February to terminate the pre-trial investigation into the financing of the Nemuno Aušra election campaign.
According to the prosecutor's office, this decision was made after it was established that no criminal offence had been committed. Under Lithuanian law, criminal liability for illegal support applies only if the amount exceeds EUR 25,000.