Last May, the Lithuanian parliament rejected a civil partnership bill that would have recognised same-sex unions. But the bill will be reintroduced during the spring session, Aušrinė Armonaitė, chairwoman of the Freedom Party, has said.
The gender-neutral partnership was the flagship platform issue of the liberal Freedom Party, also included in the coalition agreement.
“The partnership issue will be back on the parliament’s spring session agenda. We’re not hiding it – we want to see it considered, and it will be there,” Armonaitė said in an interview with LRT.lt.
According to some analysts, this could be the last chance for the bill to be passed, since municipal elections in early 2023 will make politicians seeking mayorships less willing to support an issue which is still considered controversial by many.
Asked about this, Armonaitė said that “the timing is always right for important human rights issues”.
“We’ve always wanted to resolve these issues as soon as possible – not because of some political conjuncture but first and foremost because Lithuania is very late,” she said.
According to her, despite Lithuania’s economic progress and other achievements, the country is “grouped together with Russia and Belarus” in terms of human rights, “although we wouldn’t want to compare ourselves with them in the liberal democracy rankings”.
In May last year, 63 MPs voted in favour of the partnership bill, while 58 voted against it, and seven abstained.
In Armonaitė‘s words, this was a good showing for a same-sex partnership bill in Lithuania – coming this close to being passed “was record high in Lithuanian history”. The Freedom Party will do everything to ensure that even more parliament members support the bill during the spring session, she added.
However, opposition to legalising same-sex unions has come from President Gitanas Nausėda, who commented after May's vote that he would have vetoed the bill even if it had passed.
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