The current president of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda won the presidential election.
This is evidenced by the data of the Main Election Commission of Lithuania, Radio Svoboda informs.
In the second round, which took place on May 26, Nauseda won the support of more than 74% of voters. His rival, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, received 24% of the vote.
As Bloomberg reports, Russia’s war in Ukraine has dominated the presidential campaign in the nation of 2.8 million, which borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to the west and Belarus to the east. Nauseda won public support for his position on Ukraine and vocal calls to NATO allies to strengthen the eastern border of the military alliance.
“Lithuania’s independence, Lithuania’s freedom, is a fragile thing that we must cherish and prevent it from cracking. This is the reason why a lot more needs to be done for collective security”, — the president told reporters on Sunday.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already congratulated Nauseda on her re-election.
“You were always with us in these most difficult years. I appreciate your sincere support for Ukraine, and I am sure that, working together, we will ensure freedom, peace and security in Ukraine, the Baltic States and all of our Europe”, — Zelenskyy wrote on X.
Gitanas Nauseda, who ran as an independent candidate, had 44% of the votes already in the first round, which took place on May 12. Ingrida Simonyte, who was a candidate from the leading conservative party “Union of the Fatherland — Lithuanian Christian Democrats”, then took second place with 20% of the vote.
For Gitanas Nauseda, this term will be the second and last. All because, according to the Lithuanian constitution, the head of state cannot be elected more than twice in a row.
