Prime Minister-designate Gintautas Paluckas sees it as a "huge advantage" that Agriculture Minister-designate Ignas Hofmanas organised the farmers' protests at the beginning of this year.

According to G. Paluckas, it is important for the future head of the Ministry of Agriculture to have the support of the farming community, which seems to be the case for I. Hofmanas.

„I see a huge advantage. If you know what the sector needs and you can even rally and protest about it, having the instruments and tools to implement the objectives is a huge advantage," Paluckas told reporters on Friday after a meeting with President Gitans Nausėda.

„Therefore, this is certainly not a disadvantage, a mixing of interests. The support of the farming community is also very important for the minister," the politician said.

I. Hofmanas, a candidate of the coalition „Nemunas aušros“, is the chairman of the Agriculture Council – this umbrella organisation of farmers staged a major protest in January this year, when farmers from all over Lithuania took to the streets of Vilnius in tractors.

G. Paluckas described this as a "kind of democratisation process": "In which people who are determined to solve the problems go to the minister's position."

All the names of the ministerial candidates, announced this week, were discussed by Paluckas with the President on Friday.