The European Parliament elections in Lithuania were relatively successful to the current centre-right ruling coalition and the centrist opposition. Three of the country’s 11 delegates, however, are likely to join the right-wing ECR group in Strasbourg and Brussels.
The conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) won the biggest share of the votes in Sunday’s elections and will retain the three seats in the EP it currently holds, joining the ranks of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) group.
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Their liberal coalition partners – the Liberal Movement and the Freedom Party – secured one seat each and will sit with the Renew Europe group.
Two more of Lithuania’s delegates will join the centre-left S&D group, while one more gravitates toward the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance.
This leaves three of Lithuania’s 11 MEPs who will likely be outside the centrist pro-EU blocs: Waldemar Tomaszewski, Petras Gražulis, and Aurelijus Veryga.
Waldemar Tomaszewski
Tomaszewski is a known entity, having spent in the EP three terms since 2009. He currently sits with the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), a right-wing nationalist bloc that includes Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party.
In Lithuania, Tomaszewski leads the Electoral Action of Poles-Christian Families Alliance (LLRA-KŠS), an extremely traditionalist party that has its base in Lithuania’s Polish-speaking community. Tomaszewski advocates for Christian and “traditional family” values, including a ban on abortion, and opposes LGBTQ rights.
Unlike Lithuania’s other right-wing politicians, however, Tomaszewski is sceptical about Lithuania’s hostile policies towards Russia and Belarus.
Speaking at a media conference on Monday, the politician said that during his term in Strasbourg and Brussels, he will in fact work to improve the EU’s relations with Belarus, “a country that is very close to us”.
“We are very close in culture, in gene pool, we cannot have no relations,” he said.
“Relations must be improved. I will continue my work in the European Parliament as part of the delegation for contacts with Belarus. There must be a discussion, there must not be imposed decisions from somewhere, which is very damaging to our economy and, as I said, to our citizens, whose rights are somewhat restricted to move freely to their families, even to funerals,” continued Tomaszewski.
Among his other priorities, he highlighted “the policy of strengthening the traditional family” and the promotion of Christian values.
Petras Gražulis
Gražulis is one of the most colourful politicians in Lithuania who has built his reputation with spectacular stunts against LGBTQ rights.
A long-time member of the national parliament, Seimas, Gražulis was impeached last year – over casting a vote for another MP – and has been barred from running for elected office for a decade. The European Parliament elections are in fact the only ones open to him.
Gražulis was running on the list of the right-wing Nation and Justice Union, a party without a group in the Seimas, and says he is planning to sit with the ECR group.
His priority in the EP, he said on Monday, will be fighting for “traditional values” and opposing LGBTQ rights.
“That is why I am telling you, dear people, that no matter how much pressure I am under in Strasbourg, from where, by the way, all this moral rot is coming, I will fight to change Europe,” he said.
“Men, don’t be fooled by stupid fashions and don’t change your [sexual] orientation. Fads come and go, in Soviet times it was fashionable to be a communist and it was said that Lenin had come to stay for good, but Lukiškių Square [where the Lenin monument used to stand] is empty and there is no communism. These silly genderist, homosexualist fashions will pass, and Lithuania will return to normal life. God created man and woman,” Gražulis continued.
The National Rally, Lithuania’s openly radical nationalist party which was also running for the EP but failed to clear the barrier, has said that they see Gražulis as representing their ideology.
“Lithuania was the last country in the EU without a clear nationalist party and a representative in the EP, and we were in the running to become one. We can say that we were late, but this need was fulfilled, admittedly, with the election of Petras Gražulis,” Vytautas Sinica, one of the National Rally’s leaders, said on Monday.
Aurelijus Veryga
Veryga was Lithuania’s healthcare minister between 2016–2020 and, other than his passion for fighting alcohol consumption – he is largely the author of Lithuania’s strict alcohol policies – does not strike as a radical.
He was elected on the list of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, whose current representative in the European Parliament sits with the Greens. However, the party has since then lost its moderate wing and moved perceptibly to the right, spearheaded by its leader Ramūnas Karbauskis who likes to present himself as a warrior against cultural liberalism.
And so Veryga has also indicated he looks to join the ECR group.
“We have a tentative promise to be admitted to the European Conservatives and Reformists group. It’s a really strong group, and there are strong political parties there, like the Italian Brothers led by the current Italian government, and the former Polish ruling party Law and Justice. I really think that with such a strong group we will be able to do a lot for Lithuania,” Veryga said on Monday.
The article was amended on June 13, 2024, to include the section about Aurelijus Veryga.
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