"I would, first of all, like to state that participation of convicted lawmakers in governing the country damages Lithuania's image more than any future changes. An the clean-up is always welcome, so I think that any reshuffle should not be worse than the situation we've been in and still are," the president told the Lithuanian Radio on Thursday.
Grybauskaitė also welcomed the resignation of Vytautas Gapšys as the first deputy speaker, endorsed by the Seimas earlier in the day.
"Immediately after the elections, I said that there's no place for representatives of the Labor Party, who were standing trial, in the Seimas leadership. So my evaluation is very positive. It should have happened much earlier," she said.
She said that the resignation of Speaker of the Seimas Vydas Gedvilas was the Labor Party's internal matter. "Well, I should not make any evaluations here as the resignation of the Speaker of the Seimas, Mr. Gedvilas, is the Labor Party's internal matter," Grybauskaitė said.