Adamkus on Grybauskaitė's decade in office: some things I liked, some I'd have done differently

Former Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus says that the decade-long presidency of Dalia Grybauskaitė was generally good, but with “fluctuations”.

“In general, I view [Grybauskaitė's presidency] positively, but there have been some ‘fluctuations’. And let's leave them for the future,” he told journalists after Grybaskaitė delivered her annual state of the nation address on Tuesday.

“There have been wins and losses. There have been things I really appreciate. But there have also been things that, I think, should have been done differently. (…) Some people loved her, some hated her,” he said.

Adamkus refrained from going into any details about his successor's performance, suggesting to leave judgements for the future.

“I will leave it to analysts, observers to look into this period in some 50 years, and then probably to leave a real picture for history on what happened during those ten years,” Adamkus said.

Meanwhile Grybauskaitė's successor, President-elect Gitanas Nausėda commented that he would have liked the president to have spoken more about social problems in the country.

“I probably missed slightly that stress on social exclusion as the European Commission has recently released a not at all comforting report about our situation in the social security area,” Nausėda told journalists at the parliament on Tuesday.

Asked about his general impression about Grybauskaitė's annual address, Nausėda said “the impression is good, it was a speech summarizing the entire period of ten years, giving major attention to our international achievements, achievements in the area of building a state with the rule of law”.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė delivered her 10th and final State of the Nation Address on Tuesday. She was elected in May 2009, and then re-elected for a second term in June 2014.

Adamkus served two presidential terms in 1998-2003 and 2004-2009. Nausėda will be inaugurated on July 12.