Rolandas Paksas, leader of the Order and Justice party, has suggested that Gylys should replace the current minister, Saulius Skvernelis.
“The prime minister says he is to meet the member of parliament [Gylys] today to discuss his candidacy and we expect the final decision next week,” said Evelina Butkutė Lazdauskienė, spokeswoman to Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius.
She said that the prime minister would also ask the Special Investigation Service to vet Gylys before he would make the decision.
Paksas has also said he is proposing Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia, as a candidate to the post. Lazdauskienė says, however, it was an April Fool’s joke.
“First, it is his determination, knowledge, competences and past experience in the post of minister of foreign affairs, communication skills and ability to hear different opinions. I will say one more thing – he once hired our President Dalia Grybauskaitė, and I hope that Dalia Grybauskaitė, our president, will do the same thing,” Paksas told journalists on Friday in comment of what makes Gylys a suitable candidate.
Grybauskaitė was a diplomat when Gylys served as Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs in the 1990s.
Paksas added that Gylys had been nominated after a discussion at the party’s presidium.
Gylys was elected to the Seimas as a candidate of the Way of Courage party and is currently part of the Order and Justice political group, although he is not a member of the party.
Gylys, 68, has an economic degree from Vilnius University, has taught at Vilnius University and Mykolas Romeris University. He served as foreign minister in 1992–1996, was an MP for two terms between 1992 and 2000 and was again elected in 2012.
The Order and Justice party needs a new candidate for interior minister after incumbent Interior Minister Saulius Skvernelis announced plans to run for parliament with another party, the Peasant and Greens Union.
Skvernelis has been heading the Interior Ministry since autumn 2014.
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