Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė and her Social Democratic Party have criticized party colleague and Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė for lobbying on the defense budget behind their backs.

The controversy stems from a meeting on Tuesday at the Defense Ministry with public commentators and journalists regarding the defense budget. During those talks, representatives of the Defense Ministry reportedly said that next year’s defense budget would be lower than planned and called on the attendees to pressure the government to change that.

On the same day, defense blogger Aleksandras Matonis and analyst Marius Laurinavičius, who local media said attended the meeting, shared posts claiming the 2026 defense budget would not reach 5 percent, which is the new target for NATO member countries.

Deputy Defense Minister Tomas Godliauskas confirmed to journalists that unofficial discussions with public figures and journalists had taken place, but did not provide further details.

The government chancellery — the office that supports the prime minister and coordinates the work of ministries — subsequently sent official requests for clarification on the meeting to the Defense Ministry.

On Thursday morning, Social Democratic Party leader Mindaugas Sinkevičius told the news website Žinių radijas that he didn’t know why such a meeting was held, while Prime Minister Ruginienė called it “sabotage” (she later backtracked and called it a “misunderstanding”). Asked by reporters whether she still trusted Šakalienė, the prime minister said, “to answer this question, I first want to meet with the minister,” BNS reported.

In response, Šakalienė told news agency ELTA this was all a “misunderstanding,” adding that she learned about the unofficial meeting from Sinkevičius on Tuesday evening.

“We are all on the same team,” Šakalienė said from Brussels, where she is attending meetings at NATO and an informal gathering of EU defense ministers, LRT reported. “When I return, I will talk with both the prime minister and the party chairman.”

Šakalienė stated that if such a meeting had taken place, she would not “persecute people for caring that we should have the amount needed for the budget.”

“I do not engage in totalitarian control in the ministry, nor do I plan to,” she added.

A day after the unofficial meeting, Ruginienė announced that defense funding for 2026 will amount to 5.38  percent of GDP, or €4.79  billion. A Social Democrat politician told LRT that no changes to that figure had been made and that the analysts and journalists had been given misleading information about the number being below 5 percent.