Linas Jegelevičius
Tension in the ruling Conservative-Liberal Lithuanian Coalition is simmering and, furthermore – it has peaked this week after 16 Conservative (HU-LCD) MPs voted against the amendment of the Law on the Protection of Minors, now envisioning ban on dissemination of LGBTQ-related information for underage persons. The Government approved the amendment before handing it over to the Seimas.
On Tuesday, the 7th of November, the Lithuanian parliament Seimas voted down the amendment, which current provision states that such information is “denigrating family values” and promoting the LGBTQ family concept. In all, 50 lawmakers voted in favour of the amendments drafted by the Justice Ministry, but 56, including 16 HU-LCD MPs, voted against and 19 abstained.
The voting was thought to be a test for the flamboyant Coalition for the coming vote on the cohabitation law, which also embeds same-sex partnerships.
Previously, the Coalition’s minority Freedom (Laisvė) party bristled against the legislative initiative of the Coalition’s orchestrating party, the Homeland Union-LCD, to additionally tax residential property. With the tax range being outlined from one to four percent, some owners would be burdened with a yearly tax ranging from a couple hundred euros to a couple thousand euros.
At present, the rate is much lower and is determined by mass valuation over a five-year period.
Disagreements over real estate taxes and the LGBTQ-related legislation are so deep and so combustible
that those in power should start think of how the Coalition will look like without the Freedom Party, several Lithuanian news channels announced this week.
Agreeing, Vytautas Dumbliauskas, a political analyst, associate professor, told BNN that exit of Freedom from the Coalition is “very likely.”
“That is the reality. The question is when they will slam the door – now or next year. The latter is more plausible, as their departure near the election (Lithuania will hold a new parliamentary election in October next year – L. J.) would boost their electoral chances,” the analyst said.
Being empty-handed – without the law on same-sex partnership and the riddance of ban on LGBTQ information for minors, Freedom can attempt to “revenge” the senior Coalition partner, HU-LCD, V. Dumbliauskas says.
“I am pretty certain they will do that.
For example, they can try to thwart the quest of Gabrielius Landsbergis (chairman of the HU-LCD and the Foreign minister- L. J.) to become Lithuania’s new euro-commissioner if he finally says this is what he wants to do after his stint in the government is over. And there are many other ways to impede the Coalition,” V. Dumbliauskas emphasised to BNN.
Ahead of the LGBTQ vote this Tuesday, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė compared the atmosphere in the Cabinet to “breaking plates”. She said it during a dispute with the Minister of Economy and Innovation and Freedom chairwoman, Aušrinė Armonaitė, who announced last week that its party would not support the proposed real estate tax law.
Meanwhile, G. Landsbergis said Tuesday after the LGBTQ-affecting vote that the liberals are trying to save their ratings that have fallen to the bottom.
“What is happening now, I would call populists’ football, trying to kick the problem (real estate tax – L.J.), onto the next government,” HU-LCD leader said to which A. Armonaitė shot back “it is your party that works for headlines”, adding: “According to the Conservatives, a meaningful debate takes place only when everyone applauds their proposals and it’s called a celebration of democracy. We understand the discussion differently.”
However, the behaviour of the Freedom Party also disappoints the other liberals in the coalition, i.e. the Liberal Movement.
“These performances put on by the Freedom Party
are understood by me only as saving their own political skin. We are already considering what the government would look like without the Freedom Party. If anything, the minority government is a tried-and-tested operating model in Lithuania,” said Eugenijus Gentvilas, an elder of the Liberal Movement faction.
After the Seimas rejected the proposal to abandon the provision prohibiting minors from telling about homosexual relationships, Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius, an openly gay Freedom MP, said that the Government, the Prime Minister do not have the trust of this Seimas majority when it comes to issues of values and human rights.
“It seems to me that the results of today’s voting show that it is not,” T. V. Raskevičius commented to journalists outside the Seimas on Tuesday evening, where he staged a “civil disobedience campaign” – burned three LGBTQ-themed books, including “Brokeback mountain.”
According to the lawmaker,
by not scrapping the ban, the Seimas introduced censorship,
which means that LGBTQ people are pushed to the margins of law and public discussions.
The current law states that LGBTQ-themed information has a negative clout on minors, because it, to quote the current wording of the law, “denigrates family values, promotes a different concept of marriage and family formation from that enshrined in the Constitution and the Civil Code”.
Justice Minister Ewelina Dobrowolska said when introducing the motion that only Hungary currently has similar regulation.
The amendments had been submitted following the ECHR’s ruling that Lithuania violated the provisions of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms on freedom of expression. Now a deceased author, Neringa Macatė, challenged Lithuania after its court ruled that her gay-themed book Amber Heart violates the afore-mentioned Law on the Protection of Minors.
Lithuania still needs to find a way as to how to deal with the Strasbourg court’s ruling.
Several previous attempts to legislate civil partnership fell through at an early stage of the parliamentary process in Lithuania.
Meanwhile, regarding real estate tax, the HU-LCD-orchestrated government insists that new real estate taxation has to be adopted in order to allow the country to tap EU Economy Recovery Fund.
Brussels has already frozen part of the funds for Lithuania and says it will not release them unless Lithuania passes tax legislation.
Lithuania may lose around 100 million euros if fails to act.
To prevent this from happening, Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė says not only real estate tax, but also other taxes, like, for example, environment protection tax need to be introduced to tap the EU money.
Freedom maintains the government has not embedded tax raises in their Coalition programme and insists that Brussels does not even demand to adopt real estate tax.
President G. Nausėda has said that the Government itself proposed to introduce these new taxes, including real estate tax, in exchange for billion euros in EU support. The head-of-state has said he would veto the currently proposed real estate tax.
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