That is the point of contention between the ruling conservatives and the opposition as Lithuania’s government is going through a crisis.
How did it come to this?
Last Friday, the leadership of the conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD), which dominates the governing centre-right coalition, dropped a bomb that was seemingly a surprise even to the conservatives’ coalition partners. After convening the party’s presidium, TS-LKD leader and foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced the conservatives will call for snap elections and, if that fails to garner enough votes, the government will resign.
This was a reaction to the so-called municipal expenses scandal. Recently published expense reports aroused allegations that many municipal council members may have abused expense reimbursement claims, while Kaunas City Council members were not even required to supply invoices or receipts.
Education minister Jurgita Šiugždinienė, who had been on Kaunas Council before joining the government, has resigned over the scandal, while a few other cabinet members have had to explain their expenses.
Overreaction?
The municipal expenses scandal has affected and potentially will affect governing and opposition politicians alike. Therefore, the conservatives see calls for their ministers to resign as unfair – which is what prompted them to opt for disbanding the entire current parliament.
“Those same people who were calling Šiugždinienė to the stand are talking among themselves that, god forbid, someone should ask me why I was buying fuel for two different cars. If that’s not hypocrisy, I don’t know what is,” Landsbergis said.
To call snap elections, the conservatives need at least 85 votes in the 141-seat parliament, more than they or the ruling coalition have. Therefore, some of the opposition MPs would have to go along for the plan to work.
The opposition, meanwhile, is predictably weary of snap elections, preferring that the government step down first.
“Let the ruling coalition form a new government – and if they fail, then we can speak about early elections, we would support it in that case,” commented Saulius Skvernelis, leader of the Democratic Union ‘For Lithuania’ which, with 16 MPs, has the third-biggest group in the current parliament.
MP Rasa Budbergytė, of the social democrats, put it even more bluntly: “We are not going to help them [the conservatives] implement their own strategic agenda that they came up with at their presidium meeting.”
Frictions within coalition
On Tuesday, Landsbergis invited opposition groups to meet and discuss the early election plan. The meeting did not happen.
Moreover, even the conservatives’ coalition partners have expressed some resentment, not least for not being consulted on the plan.
“No wonder the opposition won’t go to [Landsbergis] when he never even invited the ruling parties to discuss it,” said Eugenijus Gentvilas, the elder of the parliamentary group of the Liberal Movement, one of the TS-LKD’s coalition partners.
Still, he said that while the liberals do not support the snap elections call, they are not planning to leave the coalition.
“Formally, the coalition remains intact, but in spirit, does the coalition still exist?” he asked.
After accepting Education Minister Šiugždinienė’s resignation, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said she would not appoint anyone else to the post. She also insists that she will not submit her cabinet to a confidence vote. If the parliament refuses to call early elections, Šimonytė’s cabinet will step down, she says.
In that case, Landsbergis said, it will be up to President Gitanas Nausėda – who has also used the expenses scandal to criticise the government – to find a way to form a new government.
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