Behind the scenes in the parliament, lawmakers are saying that next week's session of the Seimas will be the last chance to adopt the draft law on civil union. Due to the upcoming Seimas and presidential elections, politicians will avoid supporting controversial issues.
Vytautas Mitalas, a representative of the Freedom Party group, the flag-bearer of the same-sex partnership bill, said he expected the civil union law to pass. If it passes this time, the law will finally be adopted after failing the previous two times.
However, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė is more cautious.
During the discussion festival "Būtent!" in August, she said the vote might come up short, again.
"This is because some politicians are not following their party's programme," Šimonytė said.
Although her party, the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD), does not mention partnership or civil unions in its programme, a large part of the conservative group in the Seimas supports the project.
Šimonytė's remark was directed toward the Liberal Movement and the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSD). The former is part of the ruling coalition together with the Freedom Party and the TS-LKD.
Both of these parties have the legalisation of gender-neutral partnerships in their programmes, but both groups in the Seimas are divided into two camps when voting on this issue.
On May 23, when the Seimas voted on the Civil Union project in the second phase, three out of nine Social Democrats and two out of ten Liberals present during the vote went against the bill. It failed to pass just by a few votes.
"Politicians look first and foremost at their own interests," said Vytautas Dumbliauskas, a lecturer at Mykolas Romeris University (MRU).
"The issue of civil unions is viewed in a mixed way, so if a politician feels that his voters do not like it, he thinks first of himself and his survival in politics,” he added.
Mitalas from the Freedom Party’s group in the parliament said the civil union bill will be one of the main priorities of the liberals during the autumn session.
"We will certainly do our best to make sure that this issue is on the agenda and that both the coalition partners and other forces that are in favour will vote for it,” he said.
“It seems to me that politicians need to be less of commentators [...] at discussion festivals as if they cannot change anything and take more responsibility themselves in making sure those votes from their groups,” said Mitalas.
Lawmakers are also saying that the conservatives allegedly told its Freedom Party coalition partners that they would not be able to muster more votes. Not all members of the TS-LKD backed the bill last time.
Meanwhile, the country’s president remains undecided on the issue. He could veto the bill even if it passed in the parliament. The parliament would then have to hold another vote on whether to accept his veto.
"I am waiting for the decision of the Seimas. I want to see a concrete law, and then I will decide whether I can support this law or whether I should veto it," Nausėda told reporters on Friday.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
