Vėgėlė reveals plans for Lithuania’s municipal elections

Ignas Vėgėlė says his planned political party, Citizens’ Lithuania, will stay out of Lithuania’s next municipal elections while backing independent political committees instead.

The Central Electoral Commission said a draft resolution currently registered in parliament would set the elections for March 7, 2027. Political organizations seeking to nominate candidates would need to register by September 8 this year.

Vėgėlė left the parliamentary faction of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union and the Christian Families Alliance in April. Parliamentarian Rimas Jonas Jankūnas also left the faction, and both moved to the mixed parliamentary group.

“

Political movements are not born in a week or a month, it takes more time. As I promised, we plan to establish the Citizens’ Lithuania political party this year.

“Political movements are not born in a week or a month, it takes more time. As I promised, we plan to establish the Citizens’ Lithuania political party this year,” Vėgėlė told Delfi.

He said the new party would support organizations and political forces it considered useful at the municipal level, but would not contest the elections as a party. In his view, independent committees offered a better route to independent local government. He criticized party competition for seeking to “take over one city or another,” arguing that party-controlled municipalities could depend on whether the party was part of the central government when seeking funding for local projects.

Vėgėlė did not name specific committees and said he was prepared to support any that needed his help. He said he had close contacts with committee leaders and had recently met several independent mayors to discuss the situation. “There is no formal decision yet, but we are definitely cooperating with more than one,” he said.

“

There is no formal decision yet, but we are definitely cooperating with more than one.