As the Prosecutor's Office seeks to bring charges against Paluckas, he says he has no intention of stepping down from the Seimas

„No, I don’t plan to. I believe I can still do a great deal of good for Lithuania,“ the former prime minister said on TV3 News on Wednesday.

Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, honorary Chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), has repeatedly urged Paluckas to resign from his Seimas seat.

For her part, Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė declined on Wednesday to comment on whether Paluckas should withdraw from the Social Democratic faction in the Seimas due to the current situation. According to her, this should be the politician’s own decision.

As reported last week, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it was requesting the Seimas to lift the legal immunity of Social Democrat Paluckas.

The letter sent by the Prosecutor General to the Seimas states that the request was submitted after evaluating the data currently available in the pre-trial investigation launched last year. The investigation is being conducted under the second part of Article 228 of the Criminal Code, „Abuse of Office,“ and the first part of Article 189, „Unlawful Enrichment.“

The request states that the Member of Parliament and his wife, Ilma Palucke, may have illegally acquired assets worth nearly 345,000 euros by depositing cash into banks and using cash to purchase cars, real estate, and securities. The former prime minister and his wife may have acquired this property between December 2010 and the end of 2024. Following the release of this information, the politician stated that he was suspending his membership in the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) and said he would agree to have his legal immunity lifted through a simplified procedure.

This week, Verslo Žinios reported that as of April 21, the former prime minister no longer holds shares in the electronics company Emus. The politician’s business partner and company director, Mindaugas Milašauskas, remains the sole shareholder.

Meanwhile, the investigative journalism centre Siena reported that the Prosecutor General’s Office had seized the lawmaker’s real estate.

ELTA notes that following the publication of investigative reports last summer regarding Paluckas and his past, business ties, and suspicious transactions, the Social Democrat resigned from his position as prime minister at the end of July.