Lithuanian President urges patience on PM's dissertation controversy

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has called for a measured approach to the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė's doctoral dissertation, urging critics to "give the person a chance to start working." Nausėda suggested that focusing on the dissertation, which has recently come under scrutiny, distracts from Šimonytė's performance as prime minister.

"There are bad dissertations, there are good dissertations, I certainly will not start, like some political scientists who have not read the dissertation and have evaluated it as weak," Nausėda told journalists in Klaipėda. He questioned the timing of the renewed interest in the dissertation, which was defended in 2015. "And dissertations, which were not interesting until day X, when Mr. Sinkevičius became prime minister, and suddenly became very interesting the next day, raise doubts for me about what this is all about," he added, referring to the Prime Minister.

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There are bad dissertations, there are good dissertations, I certainly will not start, like some political scientists who have not read the dissertation and have evaluated it as weak. (...) Give the person a chance to start working – whether he will have to clarify for several months now whether he wrote a suitable or unsuitable dissertation? Let him start proving what he is capable of as prime minister, let's demand that from him.

The controversy centers on Šimonytė's 2015 dissertation from ISM University of Economics and Management. Questions have been raised about its submission to the Lithuanian Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD, now eLABa) system and potential plagiarism. In response to these concerns, Šimonytė signed an agreement for the public disclosure of her academic work, and it was uploaded to the eLABa system on July 16.

ISM University confirmed it received an official inquiry from the Office of the Academic Ethics and Procedures Controller regarding potential misconduct related to the Prime Minister's dissertation. The university stated it would evaluate and examine the inquiry according to its procedures. Šimonytė herself expressed confidence that any investigation would conclude in her favor, asserting that she wrote the work herself and that discussions on the topic should cease.

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And dissertations, which were not interesting until day X, when Mr. Sinkevičius became prime minister, and suddenly became very interesting the next day, raise doubts for me about what this is all about.