Simas Nekrošius

Simas Nekrošius
Minister of Social Affairs and Employment
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 June 2019
Chancellor	Otto von Hößlin
Preceded by	Adolf Grönsfelder
Personal details
Born	(1957-12-13) 13 December 1957 Šilokrautė, Ruttland, Werania
Political party	Democratic Alternative (2010-present) Sotirian Democratic Homeland (2005-2010)
Spouse	Jadvyga Valinskienė

Simas Nekrošius is a Ruttish-Weranian politician and former presenter who is the incumbent Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and a member of the Volkstag since the 2007 general election originally being elected as a member of the Sotirian Democratic Homeland (SDT) before switching to the Democratic Alternative (DA) prior to the 2011 general election.

Prior to his career in politics Nekrošius was a journalist as well as a television presenter, being a political correspondent for the centre-right paper Tageskorrespondent. He later became the host of RFO's Political Review television show from 2002-2007 and garnered a reputation of being an incisive interviewer.

In 2007 Nekrošius announced he was stepping down as host of Political Review in order to run for a seat in the Volkstag on a SDT ticket, being elected in his native Ruttland. He was one of the few SDT representatives to vote against a coalition government with Rasa Šalaševičiūtė and in 2010 left the party to join the Democratic Alternative. Nekrošius was re-elected in 2011, 2015 and 2019 whilst continuing to write opinion pieces in the Tageskorrespondent. In 2019 he was appointed as Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the NKP-DA coalition government leading to him to retire from writing in the Tageskrorrespondent.

Political views

Nekrošius has often been described as being a populist conservative, although he has disputed the use of the former term. Nekrošius has described himself as being supportive of laissez-faire economics, anti-immigration and hard Euclospectism.

In 2006 Nekrošius called for the privatisation of the Weranic welfare system, calling the existing structure "socialist nonsense". He also called for health and education systems to be restructured to be made more competitive and profitable in order to maximise efficiency and innovation. Following his appointment as Minister of Social Affairs Nekrošius stated that a full privatisation of the welfare system was "untenable" but that he would work towards making it "more targeted, more based on a profit model in order to ensure a shift to a low-welfare, low-tax and high wage economy."

A sharp critic of the Euclean Community Nekrošius has called for the abolition of the Euclo, accusing the currency of "exacerbating financial crisis's as well as limiting the government's fiscal space when responding to financial downturns". He has also stated free-movement is a "backdoor for terrorism and cultural prostitution" and called greater restrictions on immigration within and outside the EC. Nekrošius in 2016 stated if there was a referendum to leave the Euclean Community that he would vote to leave, albeit stressed reform of EC institutions was more important and viable. Upon his appointment as a Minister Nekrošius said he would support the government's Euclean policy provided greater integration was avoided.

Nekrošius has stated he is sceptical that human actions have a noticeable effect on climate change and accused environmentalist activists of attempting "socialism through the backdoor of so-called climate regulations". In 2018 Nekrošius called for money spent on combating climate change to be spent instead on the army.

In 2003 Nekrošius said an independent Ruttland was "preferable" if the Weranic government endorsed closer EC or centralist integration. However in 2012 Nekrošius clarified his stance stating that he would rather Ruttland remain in Werania provided its current autonomy was respected.