This was announced by Dainius Gaižauskas, a peasant, who approached journalists in the Seimas and announced that he wanted to make a „statement from the LVŽS group“.
„We are practically in the middle of a party agreement on defence and national security and another agreement on a common foreign policy.
The LVŽS group declares officially: if these bills are adopted, we are leaving these agreements because LVŽS no longer sees sense in signing something with someone, especially with those who are terrorising the Seimas from the inside and who do not really abide by the agreements,“ Gaižauskas warned.
He pointed out that the Peasants would also call on other opposition groups in the Seimas to withdraw from the agreements. This might be necessary as the ruling party is not abiding by the agreement not to table or discuss anti-publicity bills during the war. He identified the aforementioned Landsberg and partnership issues as such.
„It seems that today the ruling party has decided that there is no need for that unity in the Seimas and that the agreement between the opposition and the position is broken. The point was that when the war broke out, the opposition and the position agreed that during that very period, we would not adopt or introduce laws that would antagonise society,“ the peasant claimed.
Gaižauskas explained that the ruling Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) party and the Liberal Movement (LRLS) and the Freedom Party had made a deal – if the Liberal Movement and Freedom groups supported granting the status of Head of State to Landsbergis, the conservatives would approve the Civil Union Bill.
„What does this mean? If these bills are adopted, there will be a wave of discontent in society again. It is precisely at this time of war in Ukraine that unity is necessary,“ the peasant said.
S. Skvernelis: „Arguments have been heard“
Saulius Skvernelis, a representative of the Democratic Group „In the Name of Lithuania“, did not make a big drama about the projects put forward by the ruling party, and he said that the group could even support certain projects.
However, when assessing the issue of granting the status of Head of State to Landsbergis, Skvernelis doubted whether it was worth looking to the past. „Is it necessary to go back and look at history? History has arranged everything, the facts are what they are, and now it looks very artificial,“ Skvernelis said.
At the same time, the politician was more positive about the Civil Union project, which the ruling party is planning to submit to the Parliament, which would legalise partnerships.
„My first impression is that the arguments that were put forward, even by me personally, were heard. You have to look at the legal details, but all the things that were most worrying are gone, from the definition, no allusion to the definition of family, to the registration procedures themselves, the names, and the adoptions.
According to what has been presented in the public domain, I think it is a search for a compromise“, he pointed out.
According to Skvernelis, the group will vote freely on the legalisation of partnerships, and some of the group's members may support the project, he said.
R.Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė: „I hope my conscience will awaken sooner or later“
Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, the elder of the TS-LKD group, pointed out that the issue of granting the status of Head of State to Landsbergis is a matter of honour for the Lithuanian state.
„It is a matter of honour for our state to say whether our state had a leader 30 years ago. In our opinion, there was a leader, the Chairman of the Supreme Council, V.Landsbergis. We are not talking about the status of the President, which is perhaps what the opposition is most vehement and afraid of. We are talking about whether the state had a leader at the time.
There is no doubt that Landsbergis acted as head of state when acting with authority both within the state and when concluding multilateral inter-state treaties,“ she said.
Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė called the opposition's talk that the coalition partners were blackmailing Landsbergis in order to increase support for the legalisation of the Civil Union absurd.
„Absurd, absurd, these strange accusations of theirs. I hope that sooner or later, conscience will awaken,“ the politician hoped.
As a reminder, Lithuanian politicians decided to prepare a new inter-party agreement on national defence and defence after Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine in February.
In the wake of the war in the neighbourhood, the Seimas increased defence funding by almost €300 million this year, bringing it to more than 2.5% of GDP.
