Valdas Benkunskas (born 1 November 1984) is a Lithuanian politician. Mayor of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

since 26 April, 2023.

Biography

In 2003 he graduated from the Vydūnas Junior High School in

Šilutė Šilutė (, previously ''Šilokarčiama'', german: link=no, Heydekrug), is a city in the south of the Klaipėda County, Lithuania. The city was part of the Klaipėda Region and ethnographic Lithuania Minor. Šilutė was the interwar capital of Š ...

, and in 2009 he got a degree at the Faculty of Law at the

Mykolas Romeris University Mykolas Romeris University ( lt, Mykolo Romerio universitetas) is an international university located with campuses in Vilnius and Kaunas, Lithuania. MRU cooperates closely with over 350 universities, public and private institutions, takes par ...

. From 2008–2015 he was an assistant to

Paulius Saudargas Paulius Saudargas (born 13 March 1979 in Kaunas) is a physicist, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, Member of the Seimas for the Justiniškės constituency since 2008 and holds a PhD in biophysics. Biography In 2001 graduated from the Faculty of ...

, a Member of the

Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendme ...

. Since 2011, he was a member of the Vilnius city council. In 2015–2017 and from 2019, he was the deputy mayor of the city of Vilnius. From 2020, he was a member of the

European Committee of the Regions The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...

. In the March 2023 elections, he became the mayor of Vilnius.{{Cite web , date=2023-03-19 , title=Benkunskas elected mayor of Vilnius , url=https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1941762/benkunskas-elected-mayor-of-vilnius , access-date=2023-03-22 , website=lrt.lt , language=en He remains a member of the

Homeland Union The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats ( lt, Tėvynės sąjunga Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai, TS–LKD), also known colloquially simply as the Conservatives, is a centre-right political party in Lithuania. It has 18,000 mem ...

party.

References

Mayors of Vilnius Lithuanian jurists People from Klaipėda 1984 births Living people