Remigijus Žemaitaitis, the Chairman of Nemuno Aušra, said that he would neither participate himself nor delegate any other party representative. He pointed out that he is currently in Brussels for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly session, so he says he will not cancel his business trip to „go and talk“.
„It cannot be that I am now in a hurry and doing a meeting. I will not cancel my trip and business trip to go and talk,“ Žemaitaitis told Elta.
The politician is generally sceptical about the President's initiative to invite talks on the need for additional funding for the country's defence without explicitly suggesting the sources in the invitation.
„The Presidency needs to do its homework. When it wants to call such a serious meeting, it should send to the leaders of the parties what they are proposing; it should send proposals for tax changes, how much it will allocate to the army, how much it will allocate to financing... And now to invite them to come and have a cup of coffee – I am certainly not going to cancel an essential visit,“ Žemaitaitis said.
The Nemuno Aušra leader added that the President himself had „boiled this porridge“ and now „does not know how to get out of it“ and that by inviting party leaders to discuss the issue, „he will try to shift the responsibility to all the politicians“.
The President's chief adviser, Frederikas Jansonas, quickly reacted to these words, noting that „who is on which side“ was finally clear.
Lrytas had asked whether the party's vice-chairman, Robertas Puchovičius, would be delegated to the meeting, but he said he was on holiday.
The other two ruling parties do not intend to miss the meeting with the Head of State. Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas will represent the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania. In contrast, the Speaker of the Seimas, Saulius Skvernelis, will represent the Democratic Union Vardan Lietuvos (In the Name of Lithuania).
Some opposition parliamentary parties are not showing any particular interest in the President's initiative either.
Ramūnas Karbauskis, Chairman of the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union, received an invitation from Nausėda but will not visit the Presidential Palace.
Aušrinė Norkienė, the elder of the Peasant faction in the Seimas, told the Lrytas portal that she would represent the party because Karbauskis was abroad. She did not want to elaborate on whether he travelled for work or personal matters.
Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, the Chairwoman of the Liberal Movement, will also not appear at the S. Daukantas Square Palace on Wednesday. Although she received an invitation, the party's vice-chairman, Simonas Kairys, was delegated to the Presidential Palace.
Čmilytė-Nielsen welcomed the President's initiative to invite everyone but stressed that she did not expect too much from the meeting. She said that the meeting's aim would first be to unite the coalition partners themselves, as the Liberals remained consistent on defence issues.
„We will participate in all stages as far as we see that it makes sense. And tomorrow my deputy Kairys is delegated. We do not expect tomorrow's meeting to solve all the problems. We would like to see a minimum that the President would reconcile the coalition and help it have a united position on defence, if possible, „ she told Lrytas.
However, the leader of the Liberal Movement questioned the unity of the ruling coalition after seeing the latest statements by Žemaitaitis.
„Frankly speaking, it is now obvious that one partner in the coalition will destroy any agreement on defence with all his might and does not see defence issues as important. Tomorrow's task is to resolve this situation with the President's help, „ said Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen.
She did not say why she would not attend the meeting herself.
The Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats will be represented at the meeting by their President-elect, Laurynas Kasčiūnas.
Last week, Nausėda announced that he would invite all parliamentary parties to the Presidency to discuss the possibility of renewing the National Defence Agreement. The President also intends to examine possible sources of increased funding for national defence with politicians.
„Next week, I will invite the leaders of all parties in the Parliament to the Presidency. I want to discuss a possible re-drafting of the defence agreement – if the parties think the defence and security deal needs to be reformulated.
„ We will also discuss the sources of funding for the goal that the National Defence Council has set,“ Nausėda said on Thursday.
Conservatives addressed the President in January, asking him to initiate the renewal of the National Defence Agreement. They said that the ruling majority politicians' lack of commitment to initiating the renewal of the agreement makes the leadership of the Head of State on this issue particularly important.
The National Defence Council (VGT) met in January and agreed to allocate 5–6% of GDP annually to the country's defence for 2026–2030. According to the Head of State, the 5.5% of GDP funding should be maintained over four years.
According to the VGT's decision, additional allocations are needed to form an army division in Lithuania by 2030.
However, it is not yet clear where the additional defence funding will come from.