Nausėda admitted that he did not know what the ruling party, which did not dissolve the Seimas, would do next but wondered aloud whether the voters would decide next year that they wanted to watch the kindergarten show for four more years.
Meanwhile, the conservatives themselves seem to be at a loss as to what to do with the scattered toys. The right wing, which earlier threatened the resignation of Prime Minister Ingrid Šimonytė and the entire government, has already gone quiet.
Immediately after the fiasco, Šimonytė admitted that she had "let herself go a bit too far" when talking about her future resignation.
Landsbergis also said that the possible resignation of the government would be decided not only by Šimonytė but also by the party praesidium and the coalition partners.
The latter shrugged their shoulders and said, "We will not be held hostage by psychopaths for another day."
The partners also raise their voices
On Tuesday, Eugenijus Gentvilas, the elder of the Liberals' group, carried not only the coalition agreement he would like to rewrite but also the coalition's contract, which was hastily convened in the office of the Speaker of the Seimas, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen.
The Liberals are proposing to include a coalition council in it. This is to avoid a similar situation where the conservatives took the decision on early elections without even consulting their coalition partners.
The Liberal Movement also demands that the Conservative Presidium decide as soon as possible on the Government's and its leader's fate.
According to Gentvilas, this issue is still uncertain because of Šimonytė herself: "It is in our interest that we and Lithuania find out as soon as possible whether the current government will remain in place, whether a new government will be formed on the basis of this one, or whether there is some other plan that has been talked about earlier.
Perhaps there is still a desire to go to early elections if a government cannot be formed."
Vytautas Mitalas, a representative of the Freedom Party and Vice-Chairman of the Seimas, believes that the conservatives have to find the answer about the future of the government themselves, and they have to do it before the NATO summit: "We all have the right to live in secrecy and speculations about the future, and politicians have the duty to ensure that this is the case".
Want prayers and tears?
However, the Conservative leaders seem to see a slightly different scenario.
Some participants in the coalition meeting on Tuesday said that they had the impression that the initiative to persuade Šimonytė to stay on as prime minister was to be passed on to the small coalition partners.
This was also mentioned by G.Landsbergis. After the failed vote, he explained that a meeting of the party's praesidium would be called, but before that, he wanted consultations with the coalition partners.
The latter reacted by reproaching the Conservatives for not having seen fit to consult earlier.
"Now they want us all on our knees begging and tearing at the Prime Minister not to go. That is certainly the expectation," said one of the ruling majority representatives.
The interlocutor quipped that he did not know what this would look like: "I wonder if there will be a vote of confidence in the PM in the Parliament or if it will be enough to line up under the windows of the government with posters and hearts."
What was will not return
By the way, at the beginning of the crisis, Gentvilas suggested that Šimonytė should check whether she had the confidence of the Seimas. To this, the Prime Minister arrogantly retorted that it would be absurd for her to go to the Seimas to test her credibility.
This Liberal, like most of the other representatives of the ruling majority, is convinced that Šimonytė would easily gain the support of the coalition. However, he acknowledged that confidence in the Prime Minister had wavered after recent events.
"I consider Šimonytė to be a good prime minister, a good politician and a good political manager. I would like her to continue working. But, sorry, to go and ask: 'Ingrida, could you work,' is not going to happen. Let the party that delegated her to the premiership make that decision.
I wonder whether the Prime Minister's position has not wavered in the eyes of the other members of the ruling majority. Her behaviour has upset many moral and psychological aspects, informal ones. The unwillingness to communicate and to talk was simply gushing.
We saw this not only from the point of view of the small coalition partners. The Conservatives themselves seem to have been surprised by this behaviour. Even Vytautas Landsbergis and Andrius Kubilius admitted that this was news to them.
That is why we have to start communicating and trying to restore mutual trust because if we don't change anything, I would not like to wait for something to happen to them again," said Gentvilas.
No grade on the exam
President Nausėda also thinks that Šimonytė's retreat from her vociferous positions will not be very easy: "Do you think it is possible to put the toothpaste back in the tube? Try it, it's unlikely."
It is not only Šimonytė who may have to put her toothpaste back in the tube. Landsbergis has a similar problem.
The right-wing leader, who has proposed a reboot of the country's entire political system, has previously made it clear that the vote he has demanded for early parliamentary elections will also be a kind of test of confidence in him.
Does the politician feel he has passed this test? After the Seimas rejected the idea of early elections, Landsbergis was reluctant to talk about his responsibility for the political crisis he had caused.
Landsbergis said that he saw no reason to resign. "Conservatives interviewed by Lietuvos rytas also considered that the party leader had avoided this unpleasant procedure, at least for the time being, by letting the members of the group freely decide on the announcement of early parliamentary elections.
At the same time, the ruling coalition partners said they did not want to interfere in the internal affairs of the conservatives, but they did not spare any criticism of their leader either.
"From the outside, it looks like Landsbergis is engaged in a battle in which he has lost on all flanks - at Bachmut, at Marijinka and at Kherson.
He has lost both in the eyes of the public and in the eyes of the party, showing that not everyone is necessarily listening to him. He has lost to his coalition partners and even to Vytautas Landsbergis. To be honest, I don't understand why this was necessary and how it was possible to calculate this way," Gentvilas told Lietuvos rytas.
Grandfather-grandson duel
Even before Monday's meeting of the party's praesidium, the conservatives were not sure whether the vote to dissolve the Seimas would not be binding on them.
When some members of the Seimas group were questioning the idea of the party leaders, the Patriarch of the right, V.Landsbergis, clearly took the side of the rebels and urged the praesidium members to reverse their previous decision and withdraw the proposal to vote on early elections altogether.
According to witnesses, Landsberg and his grandson clashed again on Monday over their different views on the crisis and how it should be managed.
"There was tension, Gabrielius was struggling to control himself, but he was unable to listen to the professor respectfully, and it was not pleasant," said a source from Lietuvos rytas.
Moreover, after the Patriarch's speech, Šimonytė felt insulted.
She reproached Landsbergis for saying that she was running away from responsibility. The veteran politician excused himself by saying that this was not his opinion but that the public might think so.
He's still throwing a lifeline
But Landsbergis was not sad when his grandson's idea failed in the Seimas on Tuesday. On the contrary, he was happy with the results of the vote and the fact that his opinion had been supported.
However, the grandfather seems to be throwing another lifeline to his grandson.
In several media interviews, Landsbergis has even referred reproachfully to the name of Jonas Survilla, the party's vice-chairman, who is known as the 'grey cardinal', and to the great influence that he has had.
"What are you asking me? Ask the Government or Survila. Ask those people," Landsbergis said casually when asked what the next steps could be to resolve the crisis.
The veteran right-winger admitted that the deputy foreign minister, who is regarded as the party's strategist, could probably be called a grey cardinal. "Or are there two cardinals? What do I know? Sometimes it seems to me that there are two.
But let's leave this topic. I have already said a lot - I will get some anger again," Landsbergis said cautiously on Delfi's "Iš esmės" programme.
Against - and the ruling party
On Tuesday, not only their coalition partners and the opposition but also a third of the right wing did not support the conservative leaders' idea to dissolve the Seimas.
14 conservatives voted against and 2 abstained. 34 members of the group voted in favour of early elections.
The Conservatives were not helped by the support of 16 Peasants, 9 Social Democrats, 6 members of the Mixed Group of MEPs and one representative of the Democratic Union "In the Name of Lithuania".
The final result was as follows: 66 in favour of early elections, 61 against and 8 abstentions.
