Artūras Paulauskas

Artūras Paulauskas ( listen ^{? / I} ) (born August 23, 1953 in Vilnius ) is a Lithuanian lawyer and politician , member of the Seimas . He was the General Prosecutor of the Republic of Lithuania and chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament from autumn 2000 to April 13, 2006 - interrupted from March 6 to July 12, 2004, when in this capacity he temporarily carried out the official duties of the President of Lithuania by virtue of the constitution .

Professional career

After graduating from secondary school in Šiauliai in 1971 , Artūras Paulauskas completed his degree in law in 1976 at the Vilnius University Faculty of Law . After finishing his studies he worked in the public prosecutor's office in the small Lithuanian town of Kaišiadorys . In 1982 he became the first public prosecutor in Varėna district and shortly before the end of the Soviet Union, he became the deputy general prosecutor of the Lithuanian SSR (1987–1990). When the independent Republic of Lithuania had to fill the newly created institutions with trustworthy people, the then chairman of the Constituent Assembly and de facto president, Vytautas Landsbergis , appointed the 36-year-old as the first Lithuanian attorney general .

Political career

After he was demoted to Deputy Attorney General as a result of the change in power from the Conservatives to the Socialists at the end of his first term of office in 1995 and was not considered for the post of Attorney General by the Conservatives after they came back to power in 1997, he made direct use of his great reputation and reputation retired from civil service in the spring of 1997 and declared his candidacy for the highest government office. In the presidential elections that took place in the winter of 1997/1998, he was only barely defeated in the runoff election (with 14,000 votes) to the conservative candidate, Valdas Adamkus .

As a consequence of his nationwide fame, he decided to continue his political engagement and founded a new party, the " Naujoji Sąjunga " (New Union), which later also operated as the "Social Liberals". He was party chairman from its inception on April 25, 1998 to November 15, 2008. 2014 he became a candidate for President of Lithuania in the Lithuanian presidential election, 2014 .

Paulauskas is one of the 89 people from the European Union against whom Russia imposed an entry ban in May 2015 .

Speaker of Parliament

With the image of the unspent and uncorrupted politician, he led the new party in the local elections in spring 2000 and then in the parliamentary elections in autumn 2000 to third place in the electorate (almost 20% of the vote). Together with the party of former Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas , who was also decried as an outsider , who joined the Liberals and made them the second strongest party, they founded a “coalition of new politics”.

Paksas became prime minister, Paulauskas chairman of parliament. However, the two coalition partners soon fell out and Paulauskas' social liberals formed a new coalition with the strongest party in parliament, the Social Democrats under Algirdas Brazauskas . Paulauskas remained chairman of the parliament.

In this function he played an important role in the impeachment proceedings of the then President Rolandas Paksas in the winter of 2003/2004. Paulauskas was provided by the security service with documents accusing the president of behavior that endangered state security. He passed this material on to the parliamentary groups, which decided to set up a commission of inquiry. As chairman of parliament, Paulauskas actively promoted the impeachment, which finally took place in April 2004. Until the new elections in July 2004, he temporarily took over the office of President.

But his political star was already on the decline. Not only did he become the number 1 enemy for the supporters of the former President Paksas, he had also found little support from other political and social forces in the country during the years of his political career. In order to avoid the political end, his party joined with the government partners , the social democrats, in the electoral alliance A. Brazausko ir A. Paulausko koalicija "Už darbą Lietuvai" (A. Brazauskas 'and A. Paulauskas' coalition "Work for Lithuania") together. After the elections in autumn 2004, both parties were badly beaten and saved themselves in a coalition with the Labor Party and the Peasant Party . Paulauskas was re-confirmed as chairman of parliament.

In March 2006, he learned that the forces had shifted to his disadvantage. An initially harmless-looking affair about the use of a company car in the Parliament's office and other benefits in office was fatal for Paulauskas, as he was assigned political responsibility for this. He refused to voluntarily resign. A vote of confidence in parliament, in which numerous members of the government majority (especially the Labor Party) opposed him, was very clear in favor of his resignation on April 11, 2006 with 94 for to 11 against (out of a total of 141 members). After this political “betrayal”, the social liberals left the governing coalition.

In the parliamentary elections in October 2008, the end of the ruling party had finally come: with 3.6% of the valid votes, the social liberals clearly failed to make it into parliament (5% hurdle). Paulauskas made it clear on November 15, 2008, when he announced his resignation as party chairman, that this meant that his own career was over.

Private

Artūras is married to Jolanta for the second time and from this marriage has a daughter, Aistė, and a son, Arnas. From his first marriage he has two sons (Andrius and Vilius).

Paulauskas lives in Tarandė (Vilnius). He illegally extended the fence on his property and a fine was imposed in 2001 for this.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Entry bans: Russia accuses EU politicians of showing behavior. In: Spiegel Online. May 31, 2015, accessed June 1, 2015 . 
2. ^ RUS: Russian Visa Blocking List. (PDF 23 KB) In: yle.fi. May 26, 2015, accessed June 1, 2015 . 
3. ↑ A.Paulauskas atsistatydina iš Naujosios sąjungos vadovų
4. ↑ A. Paulauskas pasuko pėdomis
5. ↑ [1]
6. ↑ A. Paulauskas negalvojo, kad taps Seimo pirmininku, kai tvėrėsi tvorą
7. ↑ Skandalas padidino sklypo vertę

predecessor	Office	successor
Arūnas Kundrotas	Minister of Environment of Lithuania 2008	Gediminas Kazlauskas
unknown	Prosecutor General of Soviet Lithuania 1987–1990	-
-	Prosecutor General of Lithuania 1990–1995	Vladimiras Nikitinas