This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania, Her Excellency Ms. Ingrida Šimonytė, who subsequently met with His Eminence Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by His Excellency Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States.
During the cordial discussions, satisfaction was expressed for the good relations between the Holy See and Lithuania, highlighting the role of the Christian faith and of the Catholic Church in promoting moral values and the protection of the dignity of man and of the family.
Attention then turned to matters of mutual interest, such as cooperation between nations to overcome current challenges, accentuated by the pandemic, peace, and security at the regional and international level, and the current humanitarian emergencies, most recently that of Afghanistan.
Ingrida Šimonytė was born on November 15, 1974) took office on December 11, 2020.
Born in Vilnius, Šimonytė graduated from Vilnius University with a degree in business in 1996, later receiving a master’s degree as well in 1998. She began her career as an economist and public servant, working as chief of the tax division within the Ministry of Finance until 2004. She remained within the ministry’s tax division until being nominated to serve as finance minister in 2009, tasked with stimulating the Lithuanian economy in the aftermath of the Great Recession. She resigned from the position in 2012, and afterward was appointed deputy chairperson of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, while also becoming chairperson of Vilnius University Council, a professor of economics at the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, and of public finance at ISM University of Management and Economics.
Šimonytė returned to politics in 2016 when she ran as an independent candidate in the 2016 parliamentary election to represent the Antakalnis constituency in Vilnius, ultimately winning a seat in parliament. In 2018, Šimonytė announced her campaign in the 2019 presidential election and won the nomination of the Homeland Union. She narrowly won the first round of the election on 12 May 2019, before placing second behind Gitanas Nausėda in the run-off on 26 May.
She was re-elected to parliament in the 2020 parliamentary election, where the Homeland Union won a plurality of seats. Following the certification of the election results, Šimonytė was proposed as the prime ministerial candidate by a coalition consisting of the Homeland Union, Liberal Movement, and Freedom Party, and took office on December 11, along with the appointment of her cabinet.
