Gitanas Nausėda wins Lithuania's presidential election with overwhelming victory

Initial results show that Nausėda won about three-quarters of the vote, which is a lot more than his opponent, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė from the ruling Homeland Union party. Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda has announced that he won the final round of the country's presidential election. This happened because the votes counted so far revealed that he was way ahead in the two-person race against Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte. Nearly 90% of the polling stations reported that Nauseda, who is 60 years old, got around 75% of the votes, while Simonyte, aged 49, came second from the ruling centre-right Homeland Union party. Simonyte accepted defeat and congratulated Nauseda. This is the second time Nauseda and Simonyte have competed in a presidential run-off election. In 2019, Nauseda won with 66% of the vote. As president, Nauseda has a semi-executive role, which means he leads the armed forces, chairs the defense and national security policy body, and represents the country at NATO and European Union summits. He used to work as a senior economist with the Swedish banking group SEB and is not a member of any political party. Nauseda won the first round of the election on May 12 with 44% of the votes, but he needed 50% to win outright. Simonyte was the only woman among eight candidates in the first round and came second with 20%. Both Nauseda and Simonyte want to increase defense spending to at least 3% of Lithuania’s gross domestic product, up from the 2.75% planned for this year, following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Lithuania, like other Baltic nations, is concerned it could be Russia’s next target. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has said he doesn't plan to attack any NATO countries. The sometimes tense relationship between Nauseda and Simonyte has been in the spotlight in foreign policy debates, especially regarding Lithuania’s ties with China. Relations between the two countries became strained in 2021 when Vilnius allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy under its own name, instead of using Taipei to avoid upsetting Beijing. China, which sees Taiwan as part of its territory, downgraded diplomatic relations with Vilnius and blocked its exports. Some Lithuanian politicians are calling for a restoration of relations with China to help the economy.