After Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda delivered his 5th State of the Nation Address in the parliament on Tuesday, leaders of the ruling liberal parties called the speech “fair” but lacking in specific proposals.
In his speech, the president called on politicians to focus on finding solutions for taxation, education, and national security. He said that “all political forces in Lithuania must strive for the broadest possible consensus, and voters must judge based on principles”.
Aušrinė Armonaitė, leader of the Freedom Party, says the president himself often engages in conflict with the conservative Homeland Union (TS-LKD) party, the biggest member of the ruling coalition.
“The president has mentioned the need for unity, but he himself is no stranger to conflict in this political field. These conflicts between the president, or the presidential office, and the conservatives are frustrating and disturbing,” Armonaitė told reporters at the Seimas, adding that many of the points made in Nausėda’s speech were correct, although she missed a concrete plan and clear directions.
In his annual address, the president said, among other things, that there is a need for faster problem-solving, avoiding divisions, defining the rights of the elderly by law, making Lithuania “the most family-friendly country in the world”. He also criticised the state of the education system and the lack of attention to regions.
For her part, Parliament Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, leader of the Liberal Movement, said she heard a call for solidarity in the president’s speech.
“I would say that, first of all, I heard a lot of calls for solidarity, for mobilisation in the speech. There were echoes, of course, of the president’s confrontation with the conservatives, but this did not become the main focus of the speech,” she said.
She was also surprised that human rights were not even mentioned in the speech.
“Well, I really missed that,” she said.
President Nausėda also criticised conservative Social Security Minister Monika Navickienė.
The country’s law enforcement and supervisory authorities are currently investigating the potentially shady activities of the fintech company Foxpay and Navickienė recently resigned due to criticism over her ties with the company’s owner. The president noted in his speech that the bar for links to business interests were set too low, adding that Navickienė and the authorities had yet to answer many questions.
“I would put it in different words. Maybe I wouldn’t call it criticism. Yes, there are certainly questions, and more and more of them every day,” Čmilytė-Nielsen commented.
Armonaitė said that it would have been strange if Nausėda had failed to mention the Navickiene situation in the annual address.
PM: nothing on foreign policy
Meanwhile, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė commented that President Nausėda said nothing about foreign policy in his State of the Nation address.
“I have to say that this time I was very surprised by the address because it is almost unbelievable to hear nothing about foreign policy in the president’s annual address and maybe, I don’t know, two, two and a half percent about defence and national security,” Šimonytė told reporters in the Seimas.
“It is obvious that this was a domestic political agenda address, practically by one hundred percent,” the prime minister added.
Former presidents Valdas Adamkus and Dalia Grybauskaitė did not come to listen to the speech, although they were invited, according to the Seimas speaker.
According to the constitution, the president’s annual address should provide an overview of the situation of the country and of Lithuania’s domestic and foreign policy.
This was Nausėda’s last annual report for this presidential term, but he was re-elected for another five years in May.
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