A cat is the only thing standing between the director of a Lithuanian broadcasting station and the country’s government in an unusual legal battle that’s going viral worldwide.
The Lithuanian government is waging a legal war against Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), a national, publicly-owned broadcasting service.
Similar to America’s PBS, LRT was created as a public broadcaster.
In late 2025, LRT was hit with an audit, which reportedly uncovered “systemic risks to employees’ social guarantees,” a high amount of paid broadcasts, and “shortcomings in public and program procurement.”
Lithuania is facing a unique political crisis thanks to a specific amendment involving a cat.
To rectify this, the Lithuanian government is proposing a big list of changes to LRT. These changes would include the potential to dismiss its director-general, Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė.
Critics of these changes argue that the government seems to have a vendetta against Monika… so they pulled out a wild card in the hopes of preventing her dismissal.
A cat just became the most powerful player in Lithuanian politics
Lawmakers in opposition to the LRT attack have filed more than 100 different amendments in an effort to slow down the legal process, including one that involves a pet cat.
One of these lawmakers, Agnė Širinskienė, introduced an amendment that says LRT’s director-general can only be fired from her position if Agnė’s cat gives a vote of no confidence.
AOL / Agnė Širinskienė‘Charcoal’ is the deciding factor in whether or not the LTR’s director-general gets unseated.
The black cat, named Nuodėgulis (English for ‘charred coal’), is now going viral thanks to this amusing requirement, which was oddly accepted by the government after parliament voted in favor of the package of amendments altogether.
An initial vote was scheduled for Thursday, December 18, but with the parliament’s chair of the culture committee in the hospital, reports say it will likely get pushed back to January.
AOL / Agnė ŠirinskienėThis viral amendment comes amid protests and political unrest toward the government’s proposed changes to the LRT.
It’s also likely that the cat-specific amendment gets canned by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, who notably poked fun at the situation when speaking to reporters.
“Veto it with the cat, or adopt it with the cat? What are we even talking about? Are we discussing a serious draft law that officially reaches the presidency, or are we telling jokes?” he said.
This is just the latest instance of a pet in politics after the town of Somerville, Massachusetts, held its annual Bike Path Mayor election earlier this year, which saw the participation of 50 pets including cats, dogs, a parrot, guinea pig, snake, and tortoise campaigning for “mayor.”
