Linas Jegelevičius
This week, the 13th Lithuanian Parliament, the Seimas, has passed the midway mark. It is nearly unanimously agreed that it has already carved out its unique place in the country’s modern history for handling a series of first-ever maladies, which just rolled over one on another.
First, the covid pandemic, then the war, the energy crisis, record-high inflation, and other «firsts» between.
According to the Seimas chairman, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, this parliament worked in «exceptional conditions», as it had to make a number of decisions that had not been seen, in her words, in all three decades since the restoration of Lithuania’s independence in 1990.
«The Seimas worked remotely for the first time. A nationwide state of emergency has been declared for the first time. So we cannot ignore the scale of the problems we have solved and are solving. The pandemic, migration, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the energy war started by Russia even earlier, which led to a jump in inflation and energy prices,» she said in a statement by the Press Service of the Seimas.
Agreeing with the Speaker, Mindaugas Skritulskas, a Lithuanian parliamentarian of the ruling Homeland Union -Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD), told BNN that «it is not the first time when perhaps destiny itself puts the Conservative party at the helm to deal with so many dire circumstances.»
«And they were just piling up – I mean the public health crisis, COVID, the migrant crisis, the war in Ukraine, and other adversities. Yet, I dare to say, our party again showed leadership and skills how to navigate through the period of the crises,» Skritulskas said.
According to him, especially during the COVID-caused quarantine period, there were a lot of heated discussions in the legislative chambers about necessary, but ambiguously evaluated decisions. For example, mandatory vaccinations, which in many cases were dominated by diametrically different points of view, are often based on prejudice.
«But on the war, the Parliament has come united – there is a number of resolutions adopted by the Parliament, condemning Russian aggression and recognizing the aggressor (Russia) as a terrorist state,» he said.
Evaluating two years of work, the Speaker claimed that the Seimas managed to pass the test.
«We did help people, and businesses to balance budgets – despite the crises, the Lithuanian economy still maintains good macro indicators, although the situation is already different in neighboring countries. The budget project currently being considered is another responsible decision of this term, which will lead to a balanced 2023 year in the state,» said V. Čmilytė-Nielsen.
Asked to discern the major achievements of the Seimas, she mentioned its ability to adopt three amendments to the Constitution.
First, legalized direct elections of mayors. Second, open the way for candidates to the Seimas from the age of 21. Third, provided the opportunity to return to political life after impeachment.
According to the Speaker, the Parliament adopted the first Electoral Code, created a new activity model for mayors and municipal councils, limited the use of cash, provided compensation for residents and businesses for the first time after the increase in the prices of energy resources, legalized the writing of personal names in the Latin alphabet, allowed the construction of wind turbines in the sea, established the position of intelligence controller. Besides, two national agreements were signed in the Seimas – on education and defense.
In two years, three ministers of the Cabinet, Minister of Health Arūnas Dulkys, Minister of Agriculture Kęstutis Navickas and Minister of Energy Dainius Kreivys withstood interpellations. Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis survived interpellation this week.
During the first two years, former Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, who was elected to the 2016-2020 Seimas on the LVZS ticket, left the faction and founded a new Democratic faction «Vardan Lietuvos» («In the name of Lithuania»). Interestingly, during this time, the leader of the LVZS, Ramūnas Karbauskis, and Antanas Guoga, who was elected to the Seimas with the Labour Party, refused the mandates of the members of the Seimas.
However, Gediminas Kirkilas, a former Social Democratic lawmaker, notes that the Seimas, at its midterm, is shaken by inner disagreements. «This happens and has happened in almost every halfway Seimas. Tensions related and not related to the budget or tax benefits are only the surface, the real reasons are often other. Some politicians begin to feel that they are somehow pushed on the margins, although they believe they can better cope with problems than their appointed colleagues in one or another position,» the former legislator said.
Thence, he says, there is a growing minority in the Seimas who are dissatisfied exert pressure or even blackmail the party leadership, threatening to leave the ruling fraction and so on.
«With several crises simultaneously engulfing the country, when at least a minimal consensus could be expected, the opposite happened: there were even sharper clashes, such as sitting in different halls, which has not been the case in our Parliament for perhaps more than a quarter of a century,» Kirkilas said.
Perhaps the harshest critics of the Seimas are Remigijus Zemaitaitis, an MP of the Region fraction, and Dainius Kepenis, an MP of the opposition Farmers and Greens Union (LVZS) and a well-known healthy life enthusiast for whom the most important decisions of the Seimas relate to the handling of the pandemic.
«Unlike the Swedes, who applied minimal restrictions, Lithuania restricted and closed everything. Yet Lithuania had EU-wide record-high numbers of excess deaths – they stood at around 15 thousand. Unlike the Germans, who performed an autopsy on each corpse, we just tied up the body bags and blindly followed the instructions of Brussels and the World Health Organisation,» Kepenis, whose views may sound fringe to some, told BNN.
Meanwhile, the former criticizes the Seimas and the Cabinet for what he calls «too hawkish» foreign policy.
«The foreign policy of the Government orchestrated by the ruling Homeland Union is already disastrous. I understand that some of the decisions regarding, say, Belarus were inevitable, however, we resumed the position of being a bellicose puncher on the neighbor and we ended up having Russian missiles stationed on the border as a result. And when it comes to China, it was just Lithuania and the other two Baltic states that destroyed the decades-long cherished relations. So to sum up, Lithuania’s interests suffered, but if we intended to appease the United States, our main ally, the Foreign minister (Gabrielius Landsbergis) did an impeccable job,» Žemaitaitis emphasized to BNN.
The MP says the Seimas and its appointed Government failed to execute tax reform, which they promised. In fact, under the Conservatives, rich people became richer and those poor (became) poorer, the lawmaker claims.
«Speaking of the liberals, they crashed and burned too. No legislative amendment by the minority coalition partner, Laisvė (Freedom) party, has been implemented. And thank God – their ideas on same-sex partnerships or legalization of soft drugs run steeply counter against how the majority of Lithuanian people see those things. Meanwhile, Liberalų sąjudis (the other liberal party in the Cabinet) and their environment minister (Simonas Gentvilas) failed to reduce pollution and implement monitoring of pollution-tense industrial entities,» said Žemaitaitis.