Zigmantas Balčytis

Zigmantas Balčytis ( born November 16, 1953 in Juodžiai today: Rajongemeinde Šilutė, Lithuania) is a Lithuanian politician. He was from June 1 to July 4, 2006 Acting Prime Minister of Lithuania, Algirdas Brazauskas had declared after his resignation. Balčytis but could not find a majority in Parliament, then Gediminas Kirkilas was nominated on 29 June 2006 to succeed the retiring Prime Minister Brazauskas and elected on July 4, the new Prime Minister. Since June 2009 he has been Member of the European Parliament.

Education and Professional

After the financial statements for the financial administration at the Vilnius University in 1976, he worked in various senior management functions (Ministry of Industry, Lithuanian Komsomol, State Philharmonic, union ), changed in 1992 in the private sector ( Asfalthersteller ) in 1994 and was active in the Municipality of Vilnius. 1996 to 2000 he worked for the Lithuanian- Hungarian joint venture Lithun. Since his entry into parliament in November 2000, he is a professional politician.

Political career

Already since 1990 had Zigmantas Balčytis member of the Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party LDDP, the succession of the Lithuanian Communist Party ( LCP ). In 1995 he became a deputy in the city council of Vilnius. After the unification of LDDP and the LSDP 2001 Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, he was elected in October 2001 as a candidate in the constituency of the LSDP Šilalė - Šilutė directly to Parliament. 2004 and 2008 he managed the re-election, each already in the first round ( = more than 50 % of the votes cast ). Since November 2008 he has been Group Chairman of the Socialist Group in the Seimas.

After the government takeover of the Social Democrats in July 2001 Balčytis was a member of the governments of Algirdas Brazauskas and Gediminas Kirkilas, first as Minister of Transport from July 2001 to April 2005 and then as Minister of Finance from April 2005 until March 2007. On 26 March 2007, he submitted his resignation, although his son, who was on trial for forgery and bribery attempt had previously been acquitted on the same day.

In the time as acting prime minister he also led the provisional Labour and Social Affairs.

In the elections to the European Parliament in June 2009 Balčytis ran as number 4 on the list of the Social Democrats and pulled by votes accumulation as one of three selected mandatary of that party to the European Parliament a.

Failed election as Prime Minister

On 20 June 2006, the vote on the election of Zigmantas Balčytis the new Lithuanian Prime Minister took place in Parliament. At the time of the election, the coalition government of Social Democrats, Peasant Party, Liberals and the newly formed citizen democracy had 52 votes. In the election, which took place in an open ballot, Balčytis could win no further votes for himself in order to bring the necessary majority of MPs present behind them, the members of the Labor Party, had hoped their votes Balčytis, mostly abstained (total 32 abstentions ). 48 voted against him. Following this vote defeat Gediminas Kirkilas has been proposed as a new candidate of the Social Democrats for the management of a minority government.