While agreeing that the Prime Minister and her cabinet of ministers sometimes have to endure hits they may not deserve, political analysts point out that the blame for this lies with Šimonytė herself, who has never found a way to reach out to the public and to communicate with them. This is because the Head of Government is not a politician but an expert and sometimes lacks sensitivity.
„I have the suspicion that she is preparing to leave politics altogether. Instead, I think she is preparing to return to the role of an expert,“ said Vytautas Dumbliauskas, a political scientist at Mykolas Romeris University (MRU).
The worst is yet to come
The number of people who believe that Šimonytė is the most suitable person to take over the post of prime minister has been decreasing recently. She has also received criticism from the public and experts after her reaction to the Perlo Energia scandal, saying that it was up to them to save the drowning.
Lauras Bielinis, a professor at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), predicts that the Prime Minister's ratings will continue to slide, especially towards autumn.
„The strong main reaction we will see is somewhere towards the end of November when the heating season starts when everyone will feel some negative changes when they return to their jobs. Then we will see a change in the ratings. Today, it is still a small fluctuation, which is not worth worrying about,“ Bielinis said in the „Open Conversation“ programme on Žinių Radijas.
According to V.Dumbliauskas, a political analyst at MRU, the criticism that has been flying in Šimonytė's direction lately is well deserved, as she clearly made a mistake when commenting on the „Perlo Energia“ joke.
„The most notable thing was Šimonytė's communication error when she said that people should have chosen more carefully when choosing an electricity supplier. I was a bit shocked. You could say that in the days of Sekundės Bank (...) The Government licensed electricity suppliers and the average citizen, like me, made a choice, and a lot of people chose Perla because it was the cheapest offer.
I thought that those times would not return, and now the Prime Minister is again saying that it is the people's own fault that they chose the wrong electricity supplier, which was offered to them by the Government itself,“ the political scientist said on Žinių Radio.
According to Dumbliauskas, the liberalisation of the electricity market has not been successful at all because electricity is too necessary a commodity to be released on the free market.
„People are angry. In this case, let's say, let's take my humble person. Electricity will become more than twice as expensive for me. Wait a minute, what kind of citizen is going to be grateful to the Government because his electricity has more than doubled in price? And yet the Head of Government says that you should have made more responsible choices,“ he wondered.
„Shot himself in the foot“
The political analyst believes that even in such a situation, the Government could have gotten off scot-free but did not take advantage of the opportunity.
„In my opinion, they should have admitted their mistake, that there was something wrong with the licensing. And the mistake, it seems to me, was made in the other Parliament. There was a law passed in May 2020, I think. It is not, however, this majority of the Seimas. And it should have been broadcast to the public that this is not our Government, but Skvernelis government.
In terms of communication, this Government has done itself a disservice – it has shot itself in the foot,“ said Dumbliauskas.
He was echoed by L.Bielinis, who stressed that Šimonytė's statement seemed to distance herself from the public, threatening to distance the public from the Government.
„I agree with Vytautas. It was a communication error. And we really need to pay attention to it because the public evaluates politicians, the Government, and representatives of the administration not on what they do (doing, of course, also has a certain criterion of evaluation) but on how they communicate their actions.
Even if the Government, let us say, has no responsibility, is not responsible for what we have chosen, we trust it. We trusted it by electing a governing majority and by giving the Government powers. For that reason, the Government's actions are a kind of protection for us, a guarantee that it must be going well if they are doing it.
For that reason, the reaction of the Government, of the Prime Minister, to society is a kind of distancing from it. This means that in the future, the public may distance itself from the Government,“ the professor warned.
Not a politician?
Even if a politician is overworked, Bielinis said, he or she has to understand that he or she has to speak to the public sensitively and thoughtfully because „any word spoken will be echoed“.
„There are things of character and fatigue that are very important in politics. You can't always be on the upswing, energetic. So we have to understand that too. But a politician is a politician, and if he sees himself as vulnerable, tired, communicating intensively with the media and through them with the public, he has to keep his tongue between his teeth and speak very carefully.
Speak sensitively, aware that any word spoken will be echoed,“ he noted.
He added that when politicians are angry with each other, the public is just a spectator, but when a politician starts to provoke the public itself, they have to be aware of the consequences of such provocation.
For his part, Dumbliauskas disagreed that Šimonytė's rhetoric was a sign of fatigue. The problem, according to him, lies elsewhere.
„I think that it is not fatigue. The answer lies elsewhere. I have been following Šimonytė since her emergence in the public sphere, since the beginning of her political career. She is a truly extraordinary person. I like her irony and the fact that she likes 'The Adventures of Schweik'. I think we all read that book when we were young, and she still admits to reading it now.
I think that Šimonytė is not a politician. Here is the problem. In modern democratic politics, there are several actors – politicians, bureaucrats and experts. In this sense, Šimonytė is an excellent expert. She could be an excellent President of the Bank of Lithuania, and maybe she will be. She can be a bureaucrat, she can be a very good official, but the profession of a politician requires slightly different qualities.
A politician, after all, is a master of words. He has to persuade, and he has to be an orator, whereas a bureaucrat is a specialist in routine procedures. The politician does not have those credentials, and Šimonytė behaves like an expert. She said as an expert. From the point of view of an expert, you could say that – an economist or an energy expert. A politician cannot speak like that,“ the political scientist stressed.
V.Dumbliauskas gave the example that Šimonytė „does not know how to „howl“ the way Blinkevičiūtė does“, and such „howling“ is a feature of a real politician.
„If a politician does not understand that it is necessary to play communicatively with citizens, then he is doomed. His political future becomes very doubtful,“ the expert is convinced.
Thinks he will retire from politics
Professor Bielinis agreed that knowing how to communicate properly is the most important quality of a politician.
„Šimonytė, while demonstrating her economic knowledge, sometimes fails to realise that it is not only the broadcasting of knowledge that is important, not only in decision-making but also in the presentation of this to the public. This requires the ability to sense the changes in emotions, tastes and fears in society. This requires a very sensitive response.
Meanwhile, Šimonytė is actually distancing herself from that in a way. This is probably really a lack of political experience,“ he explained.
He noted that Šimonytė is a rather straightforward person, and while this quality is an advantage for her as a person, it hinders her as a politician.
„It is important for a politician to speak very easily and clearly, to buffer the problems that occur. Even if it is your fault, even if society has actually done an ill-considered act, it doesn't matter. The politician has to present it in such a way that society understands that we will resolve that act together,“ said Bielinis.
V.Dumbliauskas shared his prediction that Šimonytė, in his opinion, will not only not run for the post of the Chair of the Conservative Party but will also leave politics altogether after this term.
„She has certainly said that she is tired of politics. She mentioned something about health problems. No wonder there is so much tension. Let's not envy her this post.
I think it is quite possible that she will refuse to continue to participate in politics and will not even go to the Seimas,“ the political analyst concluded.
