The president rejected two candidates proposed by the Labor Party to head the Ministry of Social Security and Labor and the Ministry of Education and Science. The rejected candidates are Loreta Graužinienė and Virginija Baltraitienė.
"I have signed a decree on appointment of the incomplete 16th government, in response to the prime minister's proposition," Grybauskaitė told reporters on Friday.
The president had previously hinted she also disapproved of Kęstutis Daukšys as Labor candidate for the minister of culture. He was replaced with Šarūnas Birutis.
The president spoke with the candidate on the phone before noon on Friday, presidential adviser Virginija Budienė had also met with him personally, the president's spokeswoman said.
Grybauskaitė said on Friday that the competences of all ministers were very different, and "some of them meet only the minimum requirements for performing their direct duties and properly representing Lithuania abroad."
"The requirements for all candidates, irrespective of their party affiliation, were equal and identical," she said but refused to take questions from journalists.
Headed by the Social Democratic Party's leader Algirdas Butkevičius, the new government will get a mandate to work after parliamentary approval of its program.
The composition of the 16th government of Lithuania is as follows:
Algirdas Butkevičius (Social Democratic Party) – Prime Minister
Birutė Vėsaitė (Social Democratic Party) – Ministry of Economy
Linas Linkevičius (Social Democratic Party) – Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Rimantas Sinkevičius (Social Democratic Party) – Ministry of Transport and Communication
Juozas Bernatonis (Social Democratic Party) – Ministry of Justice
Juozas Olekas (Social Democratic Party) – Ministry of Defense
Rimantas Šadžius (Social Democratic Party) – Ministry of Finance
Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis (Social Democratic Party) – Ministry of Healthcare
Viginijus Jukna (Labor Party) – Ministry of Agriculture
Šarūnas Birutis (Labor Party) – Ministry of Culture
Dailis Alfonsas Barakauskas (Order and Justice Party) – Ministry of the Interior
Valentinas Mazuronis (Order and Justice Party) – Ministry of Environment
Jaroslav Neverovič (Electoral Action of Poles) – Ministry of Energy
