Lithuanian Foreign minister’s team leaves SocDems

ustice minister’s adviser Nerijus Jukna has pulled out of the party a bit earlier.

The three members of Linkevičius’ team turned in their requests to leave the party last Friday, ahead of the Saturday’s meeting of the party’s council that was to decide on expulsion of disobedient MPs, the party’s executive secretary Linas Jonauškas confirmed to BNS.

Petrulis, formerly an MP, told BNS he had left the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party in order to keep working at the ministry.

“My decision was dictated by basic political logic, a member of an opposition party cannot be in the government, therefore, I decided to leave,” said Petrulis.

Linkevicius, a long-standing member of the Social Democratic Party, decided to exit the party immediately after the party’s decision to transfer to the opposition.

After the Social Democratic Party’s council decided to leave the ruling coalition, the entire team of Justice Minister Milda Vainiūtė, which was delegated by the party, resigned, including her adviser Jukna. However, he decided to terminate his party membership instead after an invitation to go back to work.

A group of the party’s veterans who had signed a cooperation agreement with the LFGU left the Social Democratic Party before the Saturday’s meeting of the party’s council. MP Antanas Vinkus was the only one to not resign voluntarily, however, he was expelled.