Saulius Skvernelis, whose Democratic Union “For Lithuania” has been invited by the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) for consultations on forming a ruling majority, believes that Vilija Blinkevičiūtė’s decision not to take responsibility for leading the next government “does not boost confidence” in potential coalition partners.
Blinkevičiūtė, the leader of LSDP, announced on Wednesday evening that she will not be serving as prime minister despite saying otherwise during the election campaign.
“What happened is something that had been floating around for quite a while. Still, we believed in what was publicly promised to the people of Lithuania,” Skvernelis told BNS on Wednesday. “This is a change that the Social Democrats will have to explain to the Lithuanian people.”
“No, this does not boost confidence,” he said when asked if he would be able to trust coalition partners who fail to keep their campaign promises.
Instead of Blinkevičiūtė, the LSDP has proposed Gintautas Paluckas, a former leader of the party, for the prime minister’s position.
Among other steps, the Social Democrats decided to invite two more political parties – the Liberal Movement and the Dawn of the Nemunas (Nemuno Aušra) party – for consultations on forming a ruling coalition.
The LSDP invited the Democratic Union “For Lithuania” and the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union for coalition talks immediately after the first round of the election.
According to Remigijus Žemaitaitis, leader of the Dawn of the Nemunas, Blinkevičiūtė’s decision not to take responsibility for leading the next government will cause reputational damage not only to her LSDP but also to all politicians.
“The Social Democrats now face a significant reputational issue, they’ll have to deal with it somehow by explaining why this information wasn’t shared earlier,” Žemaitaitis said.
“This will be costly in terms of reputation for everyone here. Now, all politicians are going to be viewed very negatively,” he added.
Meanwhile, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, leader of the Liberal Movement, described Blinkevičiūtė’s move as “unacceptable political manoeuvring”.
“It was quite obvious; we’d seen Blinkevičiūtė’s communication over the last few days, so the decision wasn’t surprising. Neither was the candidacy of Gintautas Paluckas,” Čmilytė-Nielsen told BNS.
“Personally, I find such political manoeuvring unacceptable because it raises doubts about the commitments made during the election,” she added. “However, this is a decision made by the LSDP, and they will now have to explain it to their voters.”
Ramūnas Karbauskis, leader of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, described the LSDP leader’s decision as “very disappointing”.
“Many people who voted for the Social Democrats are now in shock. They realise that if things had been communicated differently, they might have voted differently,” he said. “Both we and the people of Lithuania are very disappointed.”
However, Karbauskis said that the election results cannot be changed now, so his party will not pull out of the coalition consultations.
“We’re not backing out of the talks, but of course, we’ll raise more significant concerns about safeguards,” he noted.
The LSDP will have 52 seats in the new parliament, the Democratic Union “For Lithuania” will hold 14, and the Farmers and Greens Union will have 8, giving them a potential ruling majority with 74 votes out of 141 in the parliament.
The Liberal Movement secured 12 seats, and the Dawn of the Nemunas took 20.
Further reading
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
