2024-05-14 14:28:29
Saulius Skvernelis, the chairman of the “Vardan Lietuvos” Democratic Union, predicts that the second term in office will reveal the true face of G. Nausėda as a politician.
At that time, the social democrat Gintautas Paluckas agrees – if MEP Vilija Blinkevičiūtė had tried her chances in the elections, the second round of the elections would have looked completely different.
S. Skvernelis: now we will see the real face of G. Nausėda as president
Saulius Skvernelis, the chairman of the “Vardan Lietuvos” Democratic Union, has no doubt that the second term of President Gitanas Nausėda, who is seeking re-election, will be much more interesting than the first. In the opinion of the ex-premier, G. Nausėda will show his true face as a politician, not being afraid of another term in the Daukanta Square Palace.
“The president has a quality – always, no matter what, you need to be able to lose in order to achieve a second term. It was the president who behaved for those five years in such a way that he would not make such a mistake. And now, at least in my opinion, the second term will be interesting, because the president will not have to think about the third term – it simply cannot be anymore. And then we will see the real politician, the real face of Gitanas Nausėda as president”, said S. Skvernelis in the ELTA discussion “What does the first round of elections say?”
Evaluating the end of the first five years of G. Nausėda’s rule, S. Skvernelis noticed that the head of the country faced a difficult situation and little support in the Seimas. However, the politician notes, the president himself is partly to blame for this.
“2020 we talked about the possibility of working either with the center-left coalition operating at the time, or building on the right (coalition – ELTA). He built on the right – let’s remember, the veto cartels and other decisions that caused damage to the ruling coalition at the time,” he explained, recalling the tenure of former president Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas, when the ruling majority in the Seimas was made up of conservatives.
“It was such isolation of the Daukantas Square palace. (…) A similar situation is now (G. Nausėda – ELTA), we see his disappointments and everything else. But the president did a lot to make that majority,” he repeated.
G. Paluckas has no doubts that the chairwoman of the Social Democrats V. Blinkevičiūtė would have made it to the second round of elections
In these presidential elections, the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) expressed its support for G. Nausėda, who is seeking re-election. However, the member of the opposition party Gintautas Paluckas has no doubts – if LSDP leader Vilija Blinkevičiūtė had participated in the elections, the second round would look completely different.
“As for Vilia’s participation in the elections, I am sure that if she had participated, she would have been in the second round. She would have done what Ignas Vēgēle failed to do,” G. Paluckas said during the discussion.
However, the politician emphasizes that despite such a forecast, the Social Democrats did not see the point in “warring” the president who is ending his first term.
“If we were in the second round, there would have been a normal second round war with the incumbent president. Why is this war necessary? If we think that the president is performing his duties well”, emphasized the former chairman of the LSDP.
“Here is a very simple solution of the social democrats – if a person performs his duties well, we see no point in futilely pursuing some political or personal ambitions,” the social democrat added.
In G. Palucko’s opinion, the fact that supporting G. Nausėdas was the right decision is also shown by the performance of candidates from other parties in the first round of the presidential elections.
The chairman of LVŽS predicts possible coalitions after the Seimas elections: he sent a message to the Social Democrats
On his part, the chairman of the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union (LVŽS), Ramūnas Karbauskis, speaking about the upcoming Seimas elections and what changes will be seen in the Seimas, assured that he could hardly imagine joint work with the party “Vardan Lietuvos” led by his former comrade S. Skvernelis.
“It is difficult to say what the numbers will be, which party will have which factions. When we talk about the Democratic Union, it’s really the former Peasant and Green Union members who we call betrayed us – they may call it something else. It is correspondingly difficult to imagine working in a coalition,” the former member of the Seimas did not hide.
“When the elections are held, if there is a democratic faction larger than can fit in the elevator – that may have to be considered,” he added, when asked if he would join the coalition if there was no other scenario.
However, predicting the victory of the Social Democrats in the October vote, the “peasant” sent a message to the representatives of this party and invited them to join forces. R. Karbauskis believes that LVŽS and LSDP could agree to support each other’s candidates in single-mandate constituencies in the second round of Seimas elections.
“Now, the bigger question for me – this is perhaps a message to the Social Democrats – is that we don’t talk enough about the fact that we should try to think, concentrate our efforts and votes in order to prevent the liberals from winning the second round of the Seimas elections,” said R. Karbauskis
“This requires an agreement to support each other in the second rounds. This would be a reasonable consensus, because what we did before the first round of the presidential election, by deciding not to nominate our candidate in the elections (…), was to concentrate votes around one candidate,” he illustrated the situation with an example.
However, the leader of LVŽS assured that the party he leads currently does not have normal contact with the Social Democrats.
“So far, there is no (reaction – ELTA)”, noted R. Karbauskis.
ELTA reminds that the current leader of the country, Gitanas Nausėda, won the first round of the presidential elections in Lithuania on Sunday, having collected 44.19 percent. voters’ votes. Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, who remained in second place, received 19.78 percent. voter support.
2024-05-14 14:28:29