Nausėda will soon announce if he will run for Lithuanian president

Gitanas Nausėda
DELFI / Karolina Pansevič

“I can say that I plan to soon announce whether I will run for president,” Nausėda told BNS Lithuania on Thursday.

Nausėda is currently leading in public polls among potential presidential candidates. Some branches of the opposition conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats are nominating him for the party’s presidential primaries. Nausėda has to make up its mind over September on whether to take part in the party’s internal election.

Stasys Jakeliūnas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance, on Thursday turned to SEB bank, asking for an explanation whether Nausėda’s potential participation in the presidential election does not run counter to the bank’s code of ethics and whether the bank is not facing potential reputation risks due to such behavior.

In February, TS-LKD MP Žygimantas Pavilionis also turned to SEB over Nausėda. The latter says, however, that his decision is not related to the MPs’ actions.

“I thought about it long before that and I think it’s a logical and good decision. I could definitely not give credit to certain people for influencing my final decision as it was made earlier. The decision has been made and I will announce it soon, you just need some patience and everything will be done,” the economist said.

SEB said earlier that Nausėda, longstanding advisor to the bank’s president and chief economist, is leaving the bank as of Sep. 7, and he will be temporarily replaced by the bank’s incumbent chief analyst Tadas Povilauskas.

Criticized for more frequent trips to the regions, Nausėda says he’s had “600–700 visits” to rural areas over the past decades.

“Naturally, different eyes see things differently and if earlier it was viewed as an economist’s trips to the regions, so now, due to reasons beyond my control, the same thing is viewed differently,” he said.

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