In 1998, Skvernelis started his career in the Lithuanian law enforcement system, working as a traffic police inspector in Trakai District Municipality.[4] Dailis Alfonsas Barakauskas [lt], delegated by the Order and Justice party as Minister of the Interior, became complicit in a corruption scandal in late 2014 and chose to resign.[7] An action among members of the Seimas in support of him remaining in the post, initiated by Petras Gražulis, gathered the signatures of a majority of the parliament.[13] However, he refused their offers and announced he would participate in the electoral list of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, a party with only one seat in the outgoing parliament, in March 2016.[36] However, Skvernelis only retained a majority for four months - on 13 January 2020, the "For the Welfare of Lithuania" parliamentary group disbanded, as it lost the minimum required number of seven members to continue existing.[43] In the election, Skvernelis led the Union of Democrats to a fourth-place finish, with his party securing 14 out of 141 total seats in the Fourteenth Seimas.Skvernelis himself ran in the single-seat constituency of Lazdynai, where he lost in the run-off to then-Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas of the Homeland Union.[45] Following the first round of the election, the victorious Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) invited DSVL and LVŽS to start coalition talks.[46] However, numerous disagreements persisted between the LVŽS and DSVL parties, with each proposing various restrictions for a potential coalition, and Karbauskis calling Skvernelis a "traitor" but still expressing some openness to working together.This coalition deal led to international criticism from politicians in the United States, Germany, and Israel due to allegedly antisemitic statements made by the founder of Dawn of Nemunas.