Gabrielius Landsbergis

Gabrielius Landsbergis
Landsbergis in 2024
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 December 2020
Prime Minister	Ingrida Šimonytė
Preceded by	Linas Linkevičius
President of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 May 2024
Preceded by	Dominique Hasler
Member of Seimas
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 November 2016
Preceded by	Rasa Juknevičienė (Žaliakalnis) Vincė Vaidevutė Margevičienė (Centras)
Constituency	Centras – Žaliakalnis
Chairman of the Homeland Union
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 April 2015
Preceded by	Andrius Kubilius
Leader of the Opposition
In office 10 March 2020 – 12 November 2020
Preceded by	Julius Sabatauskas
Succeeded by	Saulius Skvernelis (2021)
Member of the European Parliament for Lithuania
In office 1 July 2014 – 12 May 2016
Succeeded by	Laima Liucija Andrikienė
Personal details
Born	(1982-01-07) 7 January 1982 (age 42) Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
Political party	Homeland Union
Spouse	Austėja Landsbergienė
Children	4
Alma mater	Vilnius University

Gabrielius Landsbergis (born 7 January 1982) is a Lithuanian politician serving as the current Lithuanian minister of Foreign Affairs since 2020 in the Šimonytė Cabinet.^[1] A member of the Seimas for the Žaliakalnis constituency,^[2] and a former member of the European Parliament with the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats). He has been the Chairman of the Homeland Union since 2015.

Gabrielius Landsbergis was born in Vilnius on 7 January 1982.

In 2003, Landsbergis graduated from the Faculty of History, Vilnius University and gained a bachelor's degree; in 2005, he graduated from Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, gaining a master's degree in International Relations.

He worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania and the Chancellery of the President of Lithuania. In 2007 he joined the staff of the Lithuanian embassy in the Kingdom of Belgium and to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Landsbergis returned to Lithuania in 2011 and worked in the Chancellery of the Government of Lithuania. Landsbergis speaks Lithuanian (native) and English.^[3]

On 8 January 2014, Landsbergis was selected as leading candidate for the Homeland Union's list in 2014 European Parliament election,^[4] and was a Member of the European Parliament between 2014 and 2016.

Landsbergis served on the Committee on International Trade and on the Subcommittee on Security and Defence. In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Children's Rights.^[5]

On 25 April 2015, Landsbergis was elected as Chairman of the Homeland Union, defeating former speaker of the Seimas Irena Degutienė in the contest.^[6] He was reelected in 2017.

Both right and left-wing commentators have attributed Landsbergis' success in party politics to nepotism.^[7][8] He joined the staff of the foreign ministry while still a student. Later, he joined the party only 4 months before being elected as an MEP on the party list, and only 1 year before he was first elected as party chairman. In 2021 he was "reapproved" as party chairman without voting taking place, as all 15 competitors withdrew.^[9]

When Landsbergis asked to meet with Russian MPs and officials in Moscow in 2015 amid the Russo-Ukrainian War, his request was denied.^[10]

In November 2015, Landsbergis was selected to stand in Žaliakalnis single-member constituency to the upcoming parliamentary election.^[11] Due to the redrawing of single-member constituencies' boundaries, Landsbergis was proposed to the newly established Centras–Žaliakalnis single-member constituency (Centras single-member constituency candidate Gintarė Skaistė joined the multi-member list instead).^[12]

By March 2016, Landsbergis resigned from the European Parliament. In the 2016 parliamentary elections, Landsbergis was the only Homeland Union candidate to win a single-member constituency in Kaunas.^[13] After these elections, Landsbergis proposed to hold a leadership election, which he won.

In late 2023, 1,8% of Lithuanians viewed him favourably.^[14]

Landsbergis is member of European Council of Foreign Relations, a left-wing think tank.^[15]

In June 2020 Landsbergis and his soon-to-be deputy minister Mantas Adomėnas published^[16] their proposed foreign policy towards China.

Policy implementation started with opening of a "Taiwanese" (as opposed to "Taipei", the usual formulation) trade office in Lithuania, playing on the Lithuanian-language ambiguity that is not present in either English or Mandarin titles. This led to effective closing of Chinese embassy in Lithuania (and vice versa) and cost over a billion euros in lost bilateral trade annually.

Promises of billions of euros of Taiwanese investment did not materialize; investment totalled €16.2m into 3^[17][18][19] Lithuanian startups (in reality, much less - Taiwania Capital is only a co-investor in some of the rounds), Lithuanian laser technology transfer to^[20] (as opposed to from) Taiwan and €10m technology transfer to Teltonika,^[21] a company connected to Freedom Party. Bilateral trade has been "falling".^[22]

Other dubious benefits to Lithuania included a $600m deal with US EXIM to fund US exports^[23] to Lithuania and Taiwan's Eximbank's €8m credit line to Solitek,^[24] a company which was previously involved in corruption controversy involving Dainius Kreivys, another minister in the Šimonytė Cabinet.

In a foreign ministry-funded poll in late 2021 only 13%^[25] of Lithuanians had positive opinion of the ministry's foreign policy towards China and Taiwan.

He is married to Austėja Landsbergienė (née Čijauskaitė). The couple has four children.

On 18 February 2022, 6 days before the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Landsbergis wife^[26] bought a €795,000 villa on the Aegina island in Greece. After declaring its ownership the family refused to provide further details. With Lithuania only preparing plans for citizen evacuation in case of a potential Russian invasion in July 2024,^[27] questions were raised about the timing of the purchase, with the foreign minister’s family seemingly having made arrangements years before everybody else.

Landsbergis ranked among the 5 wealthiest members of the 2016–2020 Seimas primarily due to his wife's chain of private schools and kindergartens which are partly funded from public sources, with estimated wealth of €19.9 million.^[28] Questions have been raised about suspicious business transactions in the context of a potential conflict of interest but the matter did not go to court, although the National Tax Inspection did start a formal investigation.^[29]

Landsbergis' father is Vytautas V. Landsbergis, a Lithuanian writer, and his mother is Giedrė Bukelytė.

Gabrielius is the grandson of Vytautas Landsbergis, a prominent Lithuanian politician who was one of the founders of Sąjūdis, member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and the Chairman of the Reconstituent Seimas of Lithuania after its independence declaration from the Soviet Union.

His great-grandfather was Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis. Alfred Rosenberg, the Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, was a personal acquaintance, as were the likes of Juozas Vitas, a Lithuanian communist. Furthermore, he had served in the Russian army and completed school for junior officers. Such breadth of ties allowed for an unusually successful career under 3 occupying governments - with no prior government experience Žemkalnis became chief engineer, then chief architect of Vilnius under Soviet occupation in 1939-40, then minister in the Nazi caretaker Provisional Government of Lithuania in 1941 formed by the controversial Lithuanian Activist Front. In 1959 Žemkalnis returned to USSR across the Iron Curtain from exile in Australia, a unique case at the time, and together with his family was granted preferential treatment and awards in Soviet Lithuania.

The Landsbergis family name is of German origin; his ancestor worked as estate supervisor for a noble family.

• Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 3rd class (Ukraine, 23 August 2022)^[30]

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