Saulius SKVERNELIS

Saulius Skvernelis is a Lithuanian politician who has been Prime Minister of Lithuania since 2016. He is also a member of the Seimas. Previously he served as police commissioner, and he was Minister of the Interior from 2014 to 2016.

Born in Kaunas, Mr. Skvernelis graduated from the Vilnius Technical University  in 1994 and started working at the Lithuanian police academy.

In 1998 Mr. 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.

On 5 November 2014, President Dalia Grybauskaitė appointed Mr. Skvernelis as the Minister of the Interior, with the parliament confirming the appointment on 11 November.

During 2015 and 2016, Mr. Skvernelis became one of the most popular politicians in Lithuania. In March 2016, Mr. 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. As a result, he was forced to resign as the Minister of the Interior.

As the head of its electoral list, Mr. Skvernelis led the Peasants and Greens to a surprisingly convincing victory in the elections in October.

In the subsequent coalition negotiations between Peasants and Greens and the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, it was agreed that Mr. Skvernelis would become the Prime Minister of Lithuania. He was appointed as Prime Minister by President Dalia Grybauskaitė on 22 November 2016, having been confirmed by the Seimas, and assumed the office on 13 December 2016, when the Seimas approved the program of the Mr. Skvernelis Cabinet.