Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė suggested on Monday evening that her entire cabinet might resign over Lithuania's failure to halt Belarusian potash transit.
“I'm not ruling out this possibility. I can say it straightforwardly,” Šimonytė told LRT TV.
Read more: Lithuania looks to ban transit of Belarusian goods in wake of Belaruskali debacle
“If so many questions are being raised about the government's performance, then perhaps the government, if it's unable to answer those questions, should end its mandate and some other government could continue the work from scratch,” the prime minister said.
“In politics, a lot of things depend on how you see yourself in a particular circumstance and in a particular place,” she added. “Basically, my choice [...] will depend on whether I feel capable of ensuring the long-term interests of the state.”
Two members of Šimonytė's cabinet, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis and Transport Minister Marius Skuodis, have offered their resignations – still to be accepted by the PM – after it turned out that Belarus' state-owned potash fertiliser manufacturer Belaruskali would continue shipping its products via Lithuania even after US sanctions came into effect last week.
Belaruskali shipments via Lithuania continue, because Belarus' potash giant had made advance payments to Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways, LTG) back in November.
The Lithuanian government says that the US sanctions do not directly apply to the transit of fertilisers through Lithuania. However, the government announced last week, after the sanctions had come into force, that it was seeking to terminate the state-owned railway company's contract with Belaruskali.
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