Lithuanian parliament appoints ex-police chief and defense hawk as PM

Lithuanian parliament has appointed Saulius Skvernelis, the country’s former police chief affiliated to Lithuania’s Peasants and Greens Union, as prime minister after the party emerged the surprise winners of a general election earlier this month. Skvernelis said his government will keep Lithuania’s pro-European policy, and pledged to increase defense spending above NATO’s informal threshold of two percent of gross domestic product after 2018.