2024-04-23 14:42:15
In the debates organized by LRT television, all the competitors met face to face this time – all eight candidates came to the event. In the first debate organized by ELTA a week ago, three politicians did not appear, including the president and the prime minister.
Already at the beginning of the debate, light jokes were not avoided. Lawyer Ignas Vėgėlė criticized President Gitanas Nausėdas and the Government, saying that they are still unable to agree on the appointment of some Lithuanian ambassadors to foreign countries.
Responding to this, G. Nausėda called on I. Vēgėlė to “verify the latest information” because, according to him, a consensus was found, which is also confirmed by the words of the Chairman of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs, Žygimantas Pavilionis.
“For probably a good year or a good six months, there was no consensus regarding the ambassadors, and your non-conversations with the Government, with the head of the Government, were even reported publicly. Everyone knows about your crisis. Fortunately, now you have united, the conservatives and the president are going together,” stated I. Vēgėlė.
G. Nausėda said that he never mentioned any non-conversations.
“Conservatives should be quite surprised to learn that we’ve come together,” the president laughed.
Conservative presidential candidate, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė responded that she was generally surprised that she and the president had a fight.
The biggest foreign policy challenge
First of all, all the candidates were asked what they see as the biggest challenge of Lithuanian foreign policy and how they would solve it if they became president.
The candidate of the Freedom Party, lawyer Dainius Žalimas, who spoke first, mentioned the support of the allies and how Ukraine should release 260 billion. euros, which are now frozen in the European Union (EU).
“There are legal formulas, it is possible to find options, I think I would be able to offer it. This would be the real leadership in solving the issue of Ukraine’s victory,” said D. Žalimas.
Labor Party candidate Andrius Mazuronis said that he believes that the biggest challenge in foreign policy today is the fact that the president and Foreign Minister Gabrielis Landsbergis are unable to find points of contact on essential issues.
“In many cases, we see that the state’s interest comes second, putting personal likes and dislikes first,” said A. Mazuronis.
According to Darbietis, the main challenge is the issue of China and Taiwan, which, according to him, is still costing Lithuania’s economy considerable money.
G. Nausėda, the self-appointed current leader of the country, said that Lithuania’s foreign policy must be such as to guarantee the nation’s security and well-being – for that purpose, according to him, Lithuania must have as many friends as possible and as few enemies as possible.
“The enemies are known. Unfortunately, those states are not going to change too much anytime soon, and those enemies are close to us. However, our alliance with our friends, both in the EU and NATO format, allows us to guarantee the complete security of the people of Lithuania”, said G. Nausėda.
According to him, Lithuania’s voice is already being heard, and foreign partners recognize that “Lithuania plays a big role in shaping NATO and EU decisions”. The main goal of G. Nausėda is support for Ukraine.
Self-proclaimed lawyer I. Vēgėlė said that the main issue of foreign policy is security, but another very important element, according to him, is experimental foreign policy.
“This is a policy that does not work in the interests of Lithuania, when the interest of Lithuania is not the most important, when the most important politicians of Lithuania are the lawyers of Brussels in Lithuania, and not the lawyers of Lithuania in Brussels”, stated I. Vėgėlė.
According to him, there is no normal cooperation between the minister and the president in foreign policy.
“Although the president says that he trusts the minister of foreign affairs, we do not have any specific decisions about the ambassadors and about a series of other decisions,” he taught.
According to I. Vēgėlė, decisions in foreign policy should be rational and pragmatic. I. Vēgėlė praised that the current rulers rely on NATO decisions, that they called the German brigade, and mistakenly named the Taiwanese embassy (Representation of Taiwanese in Lithuania, – ed.)the ban on the transit of goods to Russia, which was partially introduced in the fourth month of the war.
Conservative candidate, Prime Minister I. Šimonytė began her answer by clarifying to I. Vėgelė that there is no Taiwanese embassy in Lithuania.
“The main challenge in foreign policy and the main task is to try to avoid the erosion of the order based on international rules, and this includes everything – both our foreign and security policy,” the Prime Minister said.
According to her, the main task that would stop that departure is the victory of Ukraine. The second is the strengthening of Lithuania itself, not only through allies, but also by giving up certain dependencies on hostile regimes, as well as the development of a safe geopolitical space – the EU.
Remigijus Žemaitaitis, the candidate of the “Nemunas Aušra” party and a member of the Seimas, named leaving the EU as the main challenge, as certain EU members are increasingly talking about a possible withdrawal.
R. Žemaitaitis also named the expansion of NATO as a challenge – whether Lithuania plans to support all countries that would be asked to join. Also – a proposal in the Council of EU leaders to waive the right of veto.
Another challenge R. Žemaitaitis sees is the increasingly frequent non-security, but economic priorities of its strategic partner, the USA.
Eduardas Vaitkus, a self-proclaimed physician at that time, is convinced that the main problem of foreign policy is that “Lithuania is literally being led to war”.
“Our various government officials, past and present, are publicly declaring the need to engage in direct military conflict with Russia and defeat it on the battlefield. It is obvious to me that such announcements are the destruction of Lithuania”, said E. Vaitkus.
Giedrimas Jeglinskas of the Democratic Union “Vardan Lietuvos” said that the biggest challenge is the changing balance of power in the world – according to him, there is a huge threat to the way of life of the democracies of the United States, the West, and all countries.
“We have emerging powers that are trying to challenge,” the presidential candidate said.
According to him, it should be solved by looking at the country’s interior, because the current foreign policy does not work because it is too divided and selfish. G. Jeglinskas promised to bring Lithuania closer to the USA.
G. Nausėdas was angered by E. Vaitkaus’ speech
All candidates were asked what relations Lithuania should pursue with Russia and Belarus. Here again, E. Vaitkus stood out the most.
“Normal, neighborly relations, without interfering in the internal affairs of those countries, and categorically saying that you cannot interfere in the internal affairs of Lithuania. Equal relations”, said E. Vaitkus.
“If we have a woman on the territory of Lithuania – S. Cichanouskaja – who represents Belarus in the corridors of our government, then we are directly interfering in the internal affairs of another country. When there are rumors from that audience that it is necessary to overthrow the authorities in Minsk with a weapon, we give the Minsk authorities an excuse to say that they do not feel safe because of the situation in Lithuania,” he added.
G. Nausėda, the leader of the country seeking re-election, reacted critically to such thoughts of his competitor in the presidential elections.
“To be honest, I’m surprised by such thoughts, although maybe I shouldn’t be surprised anymore,” he said.
The president noticed that it was Russia that attacked Ukraine, it is Russia that is threatening the world with nuclear war. Meanwhile, Belarus, according to him, is a vassal state of Russia that has lost any vestiges of independence.
“Are we still talking about fostering some kind of relationship with Belarus?” Gentlemen, do not be naive, there will be no relations with Belarus, even if you really want this. For one very simple reason – Belarus is in debt in every sense, economically and militarily dependent on Russia.
A. Lukashenko, whatever he calls himself, has no freedom of maneuver. If he tries to create some kind of illusion that it is possible to nurture relations with the West, he is simply misleading everyone,” emphasized G. Nausėda.
He appealed to E. Vaitkas, asserting that if he represents the ideas he is talking about, at best he will be isolated with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or the leaders of Slovakia.
“The entire international community will turn away from Lithuania, which professes such an ideology. Is this what we are aiming for?” asked the president.
I. Vēgėlė explained that Russia is a threat to Lithuania, but relations with such neighbors, according to him, must be very pragmatic in order to avoid any military conflict. The presidential candidate also criticized Lithuania’s actions towards Belarus due to the broken relations.
“It’s even strange to me. One, it turns out, is running for governor of Kaliningrad, the other for president of Belarus. Unbelievable”, wondered G. Jeglinskas, emphasizing that “chauvinist states should be treated like countries that have a hooligan mentality and only understand the power of the fist”.
A. Mazuronis said that he could hardly imagine any relations with Russia, but speaking of Belarus, he stated that we are consciously or unconsciously “trying to mix God’s gift with scrambled eggs”.
According to him, there should be two strategies in relation to Belarus – a strategy in relation to the entrenched regime of A.Lukashenko, which will eventually leave anyway, and a strategy in relation to the Belarusian society that lives there.
“The question is whether we will make those people hostile to us or more or less positive. In my holy conviction, people live there who see our value issues very similarly to us”, A. Mazuronis thought.
D.Zalimas is convinced that until Russia stops the war in Ukraine and changes its ideological thinking, no normal relations with it are possible.
In turn, I. Šimonytė corrected E. Vaitkė that in Lithuania we accepted “not just any woman, but a person who was a symbol of resistance”.
“People who resist, who are at risk of persecution, we must continue to accept and support in every possible way,” she said.
I.Vēgėlė and G.Nausėda crossed paths
I. Vēgėlė did not miss the opportunity to tap G. Nausėda, stating that the push from China towards Taiwan was not a value policy at all, but a benefit policy.
He emphasized the allegedly obvious connections of the company “Teltonika” with the president – the company’s owner Arvydas Paukštys supported the presidential election campaign of G. Nausėda with almost 18 thousand. euros. This company has received considerable investment from Taiwanese.
Teltonika invests in new technologies. If the Vēgėli family does not invest in new technologies and is forced to work in the surrounding markets, then this is your family’s problem,” he retorted, making I.Šimonytė smile as well.
For his part, I. Vēgėlė retorted that he did not know where G. Nausėda got such data, because neither he nor his family do business in Russia and Belarus. G. Nausėda corrected the competitor without even naming these countries, but talking about other surrounding markets.
“Is it a problem to operate, to sell goods to other markets?” To Sweden, to Finland? Is this the problem?” – asked I. Vēgėlė.
“Not a problem. You say that “Teltonika” receives profits from Taiwan, take a look at which countries “Teltonika” works in and with which EU countries it has relations. This is a global company that works very widely with like-minded countries”, said G. Nausėda.
The first round of presidential elections will take place on May 12.
2024-04-23 14:42:15