Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Saulius Skvernelis will remain the leader of the Democrats “For Lithuania”, part of the ruling bloc in Lithuania.
“This is great appreciation, a commitment to move forward,” the politician said after his re-election on Saturday when 257 party members voted for him, two abstained, and one voted against.
Skvernelis was the only candidate after MEP Virginijus Sinkevičius withdrew his candidacy before the vote.
After the vote, Skvernelis told his fellow party members that the Democrats “For Lithuania” is not a one-person party, adding that he would seek to increase the number of party members during the new term of office.
“The goal of our four years and my goal as the party’s chair is to have a strong community, first of all, … and I would like to see the number of party members at least double after four years,” he said.
The Democrats “For Lithuania” have 15 representatives in the Seimas. After the October general election, they entered a ruling centre-left coalition with the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania and the Nemunas Dawn party.
Coalition mistake
At the party convention on Saturday, Skvernelis said that forming a ruling coalition with the Nemunas Dawn party, led by Remigjus Žemaitaitis, was a mistake.
“Today, I can only repeat the words of the President – it was a mistake. It was obviously a mistake. The problems that were visible before forming the government are, unfortunately, getting bigger and bigger,” he said.
“Three months of what is happening now, when the state is being despised, national defence, the president, the main directions of foreign policy are being discredited - this is unacceptable,” Skvernelis added.
According to Skvernelis, his party presented “at least three alternatives” to Nemunas Dawn during the coalition talks.
“Were there any options for a different coalition? Yes. We offered at least three options to the big coalition partners. It was possible to have a coalition with the Liberal Movement that was solid enough but perhaps ideologically difficult for the Social Democrats. But even without the Liberal Movement, there were at least two other alternatives to have a truly credible, solid coalition,” he said.
Skvernelis also called on the Social Democrats, the leading coalition partner, to decide whether Nemunas Dawn can remain in the coalition.
“We are a junior coalition partner, and I would like the big coalition partner, the leading one who forms the coalition, to make their position very clear. Do they find the ongoing things, this kind of behaviour, this kind of rhetoric acceptable? We will wait for their decision,” he said.
For his part, Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas said he hoped that the ruling coalition partners would not take drastic steps.
“I very much hope that in the current circumstances, both international and regional, as they make us stay focused and look for common ways of operation, that no one will make any drastic steps,” Paluckas told reporters at the Seimas on Monday.
Paluckas said he was ready to repair relations between the coalition partners.
The conflict between Žemaitaitis and Skvernelis first broke out when Skvernelis refused to nominate the Nemunas Dawn leader to the position of one of his deputies.
The Nemunas Dawn party has two vice speaker positions under the existing coalition agreement, but Skvernelis refuses to nominate Žemaitaitis until he resolves his legal problems.
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