Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas has been elected the chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP).
According to the preliminary results of the party leadership elections held on Saturday, Paluckas got 5,065 votes out of the 6,418 party members who took part in the voting, according to Jūratė Zailskienė, the chairwoman of the LSDP election commission.
MP Juozas Olekas, who is a deputy parliament speaker was second with 745 votes, while the third candidate, Akmenė Mayor Vitalijus Mitrofanovas, received 593 votes.
In total, 49.93% of Social Democratic Party members voted in the elections.
According to Zailskienė, the final results will be confirmed once the Election Commission of the LSDP Chairperson receives the original protocols and ballot papers from the branches. This should happen by 29 April.
The mandate of the newly elected LSDP chairman will start on May 17, after the party congress in Vilnius. The term is two years.
The current leader of the party, MEP Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, has been the LSDP chairwoman since the spring of 2021. She decided not to seek re-election.
Before that, the party was led by Paluckas, but he resigned after the LSDP performed poorly in the 2020 general elections.
Last autumn, the LSDP won the parliamentary elections again, securing 52 out of 141 seats.
No change in direction
Paluckas said he did not plan any radical changes in the party.
“We will certainly not change the direction of the party – we will not abandon the road for an experimental track. After all, the path, the vision that has been outlined, it has been included in the election programme, in the promises, and in the commitments to Lithuania and its people,” Paluckas told BNS.
According to him, the party needs renewal and digitalisation.
“We are a traditional party and accordingly we have traditional instruments, meetings, communication, which greatly improves the psychological microclimate and other things, but we also need efficiency and speed [...]. That phase of digitisation is definitely ahead,” said the prime minister.
Paluckas also promised to try to attract more young people to the party and to pay more attention to voters in Vilnius.
“The Social Democrats have already been heard in Kaunas [...], and also in Panevėžys, and after the Seimas elections in Šiauliai we are regaining our positions, but we have the challenge of Vilnius. Here, too, we will have to think very seriously,” said Paluckas.
Asked if he would be able to dedicate himself to both leading his party and the government, Paluckas said that time would tell.
“Time passes, people change, the party changes, so obviously there will be new challenges, but time will tell how it goes. […] I think that the party and the public will appreciate and weigh in,” he said.
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