Irena Degutienė (born 1 June 1949) is a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n politician and member of the conservative

Homeland Union The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (, TS–LKD), also colloquially known as the Conservatives (), is a centre-right political party in Lithuania. It has 18,000 members and 28 of 141 seats in the Seimas. Its current leader ...

. She is currently the Deputy Speaker of

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (), or simply the Seimas ( ; ), is the unicameralism, unicameral legislative body of the Lithuania, Republic of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of Government of Lithuania, govern ...

, and was twice the acting

Prime Minister of Lithuania The prime minister of Lithuania (, , colloquially also referred to as the premier ) is the head of government of Lithuania. The prime minister is appointed by the President of Lithuania, president with the assent of the Lithuanian parliament, th ...

, first from 4 May 1999 to 18 May 1999 and then from 27 October 1999 to 3 November 1999. She has also been the

Speaker of Seimas The Speaker of the Seimas (, literally translated as Chairman of the Seimas) is the presiding officer of the Seimas, the parliament of Lithuania. The speaker and deputy speakers are elected by the members of the Seimas during the session. Speake ...

from 15 September 2009 to 14 September 2012, as well as Minister for Social Security and Labour from 1996 to 2000. In 1978, she graduated from

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

with a degree in medicine. For almost twenty years, she worked in Vilnius Red Cross Hospital before becoming a secretary in the Ministry of Health in 1994. She was initially elected to Seimas in 1996. Degutienė is the first woman to be Speaker of Seimas in Lithuania's history.

MG Baltic bribery scandal

In 2017,

Eligijus Masiulis Eligijus Masiulis (born 15 October 1974) is a former Lithuanian politician and convicted felon. He has represented Liberal Movement party from 2008 to 2016. From 2008 to 2012 he was Minister of Transport and Communications of Lithuania. In May ...

250-thousand-euro bribery scandal sparked one of the largest corruption investigations in

's history. Secret surveillance by VSD revealed that MG Baltic, a Lithuanian conglomerate, has been exerting influence and systematically bribing prosecutors, politicians and government bureaucrats. Irena Degutienė is implicated in the corruption scandal – MG Baltic preferred and favoured her nomination as head of her political party.

Honours

National honours

* Grand Cross of the

Order of Vytautas the Great The Order of Vytautas the Great () is the Lithuanian Presidential Award.''Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucija. 84 straipsnis''. Priimta 1992 It may be conferred on the heads of Lithuania and foreign states, as well as their citizens, for distinguish ...

(6 July 2019)

References

Profile on the Seimas website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Degutienė, Irena Living people 1949 births 20th-century women prime ministers 21st-century Lithuanian women politicians 20th-century Lithuanian women politicians 20th-century Lithuanian politicians Women speakers of the Seimas Ministers of social security and labour of Lithuania Politicians from Šiauliai Prime ministers of Lithuania Vilnius University alumni Women government ministers of Lithuania Women prime ministers in Europe