Ingrida Šimonytė

Ingrida Šimonytė

Ingrida Šimonytė is a Lithuanian politician and economist. She is the current Prime Minister of Lithuania, having taken office on 25 November 2020. She was a candidate in the 2019 presidential election, but lost in the second round run-off. She has served as a member of the Seimas for the Antakalnis constituency since 2016. In 2009, she was nominated to serve as finance minister, replacing Algirdas Šemeta.

About Ingrida Šimonytė in brief

Summary Ingrida ŠimonytėIngrida Šimonytė is a Lithuanian politician and economist. She is the current Prime Minister of Lithuania, having taken office on 25 November 2020. She was a candidate in the 2019 presidential election, but lost in the second round run-off. She has served as a member of the Seimas for the Antakalnis constituency since 2016. In 2009, she was nominated to serve as finance minister, replacing Algirdas Šemeta who had stepped down to become European Commissioner for Budget and Administration. She resigned from this position in 2012, and afterwards became a professor of economics at the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science. In 2015, she returned to politics as an independent candidate, winning a seat in parliament in the 2016 parliamentary election. In 2018, she won the nomination of the Homeland Union to run for president, and narrowly won the first round of the election on 12 May 2019, before placing second behind Gitanas Nausėda in therun-off on 26 May.

She won a plurality of seats in the 2020 parliamentary election, and was proposed as the prime ministerial candidate by a coalition consisting of Homeland Union, Liberal Movement, and Freedom Party. Her cabinet took office on 7 December, and she was appointed as the Prime Minister on November 25, 2020. In 2012, she became one of the faces of the austerity drive implemented by the government to improve the Lithuanian economy. She remained in this position until 2016, when she became deputy chairperson of the board of the Bank of Lithuania. In 2016, she also became a lecturer at ISM University of Management and Economics. In 2017, she announced her intention to return to politics after becoming a professor at the Institute of Public Finance and International Relations. She remains an independent politician, although she has been affiliated with the Homeland Union. She graduated with a degree in business administration in 1996, and a master’s degree in economics in 1998.