In 2020, Lithuania’s Freedom Party successfully rallied a young electorate by promising to legalise same-sex civil partnership and decriminalise soft drugs. But after four years in government, there is little to show for it, observers say. Is this the end of the hip party?
The Freedom Party entered the government in 2020 together with the Liberal Movement and the head party of the ruling bloc, the conservative Homeland Union (TS-LKD). However, it failed to clear the 5-percent benchmark to enter the parliament in last week’s parliamentary election.
“The Freedom Party was elected in 2020 with two big promises – [same-sex] partnership and decriminalisation of cannabis,” said filmmaker Romas Zabarauskas. Unfortunately, their conservative coalition partners were not supportive and they failed to push an even watered-down solution, he added.
Zabarauskas, who is openly gay and lives with his partner, told LRT.lt that he had voted for the Freedom Party in the last elections, but now felt disappointed.
“They tried to create an image of being an opposition party in government, which is absurd,” he said.
“One after another, they had empty scandals, like kissing an [anti-LGBTQ+] protester and burning books,” Zabarauskas said.
Meanwhile, the party vehemently rejected any criticism, according to Zabarauskas.
“Voters who were critical of the party's actions were ignored or even silenced by the party's members or die-hard supporters,” he explained.
After conceding defeat in Sunday's elections, where the Freedom Party got 4.5 percent of the vote, the leadership claimed the party lost because people chose to vote strategically, that is, give vote to someone else who had a greater chance of getting into parliament.
“It’s not true – nobody believed that this party would succeed [in the last election in 2020], but they still voted for it,” said Zabarauskas.
The new Seimas may pass a watered-down version of civil unions, but this will not address the main problems of same-sex couples, he said, though it may still help improve Lithuania’s image abroad.
“Maybe we will not be the last country in the European Union to do it – only Romania and Bulgaria do not recognise couples like mine in any form,” he said, expressing hope that the LGBTQ+ community will be represented in the new Seimas by the elected members of the Liberal Movement.
Arijus Katauskas, a communications expert, told LRT.lt that the party was far from crushed, because it still had loyal supporters.
According to him, the Freedom Party chose to talk in the election campaign about the positives instead of focusing on what went wrong, which proved a wrong strategy.
However, the actual cause of the party’s lacklustre performance four years after entering parliament is the failure to deliver upon election promises.
“I would not paint a rosy future for this party,” said Katauskas.
Matas Baltrukevičius, an expert at the Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis, said the Freedom Party remained a Vilnius-centric political force.
“We can see that in Kaunas and Klaipėda the results could have been better,” he said. “Even in Vilnius, in some constituencies the Liberal Movement outperformed them.”
According to Baltrukevičius, the party should focus on creating a nationwide network and rethink its leadership options.
The centre-left majority in the current parliament will also likely be more socially conservative, which means the Freedom Party might attract new voters four years later.
Human rights
The outgoing economy minister and head of the party, Aušrinė Armonaitė, said the party will continue to build its support base.
“The new party was immediately put to the test by the government, four or five crises must have made our campaign more difficult. On the other hand, we believed that we had managed to do a lot of important work and that the voters appreciate it,” said Armonaitė.
Vytautas Mitalas, head of the party’s group in the parliament, posted on Facebook that they still had a chance to win several seats in the upcoming second-round vote.
“I think everyone will admit that we have withstood the biggest challenges of this [parliamentary] term – from Covid to the effects of the [Ukraine] war. We have enthusiastically strengthened the economy and fought for human rights,” he wrote.
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