Valdas Tutkus, a former chief of defence, has founded a new association called Alternative for Lithuania. He says he seeks to unite “opposition forces” opposing current mainstream politics.
“Our initial idea is that true opposition forces need to be brought together. People from the Regions Party, Christian Democracy, the Samogitian Party, and the Labour Party have joined our association, and we’re open to everyone," Tutkus told BNS on Sunday.
"The idea is to try to unite people or movements that share the values we stand for,” he added.
The association’s slogan is “telling the truth takes courage” and, according to Tutkus, it will “fight for Christian values, for the family, for children, for demographics, and against migrants”.
The former chief of defence said the association would seek to bring political forces together into a unified coalition through its members affiliated with political parties.
Tutkus will lead the Alternative for Lithuania. Mindaugas Baštys, a former deputy speaker of the parliament, and Ryšardas Burda, a lawyer, have been elected as his deputies.
Tutkus said there are no plans to turn the association into a political party at the moment, but it will support its politically affiliated members in the 2027 municipal elections.
“The association is open to members of all parties, and of course we’ll support those who belong to us, regardless of which party they represent. But we’ll hardly be able to field our own candidates,” he told BNS.
Tutkus, as well as Baštys and Burda, ran in last year’s parliamentary elections on a joint list of the Labour Party, Lithuanian Christian Democracy, and the Samogitian Party. The group, called the Peace Coalition, won 2.2 percent of the vote, falling below the election threshold to get into the parliament.
The former chief of defence also made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2024.
The association’s founding congress on Saturday was attended by Stefan Korte, a member of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which earlier last week was officially classified as a far-right extremist group by the country’s domestic intelligence service.
“We’ve received official letters of support from Sweden, Norway, the UK, Italy, Slovakia [...], and AfD sent their representatives. Korte (...) brought a letter signed by the party leadership and represented AfD at our meeting, welcoming us into the family of national movements,” said Tutkus.
AfD, which finished second in this year’s German parliamentary election, supports closing borders to “illegal” migrants, scrapping green economy policies, and restoring closer ties with Russia.
Tutkus served as Lithuania’s chief of defence between 2004 and 2009 and was previously the country’s military representative to NATO and the Western European Union.
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