2024-04-07 06:54:09
When asked whether her trust in the leaders of VSD and STT was shaken after learning about the conclusions of the parliamentary investigation, Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, an elder of the faction of the Patriotic Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) in the Seimas, said that she trusts the institutions. However, she notes, if there are questions about the activities of the services, they must be answered.
“The commission’s work was not to demand someone’s head or to express some kind of distrust, but to get answers and information to the questions raised,” commented R. Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė to Elta.
“The primary goal is to talk about publicity, openness,” she added.
The politician emphasizes that the Seimas could consider the legislative initiatives proposed by the commission when evaluating the conclusions of the investigative commission of the VSD reporter and in order to respond to them properly. However, R. Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė repeated, the most important factor remains transparency and publicity.
“The strength of the state and the strength of institutions lies in openness. If something is wrong, you can always fix it. If it seems that the conclusions of the commission are not convincing, it will be up to the Seimas to make other decisions,” she added.
Saulius Skvernelis, the chairman of the Democratic Union “Vardan Lietuvos” holds a similar position. He does not rule out that calls may be heard in the Seimas to “demand the heads of the heads of services”. However, the ex-premier doubts whether changes in the leadership of VSD and STT would solve the problems mentioned in the conclusions of the parliamentary investigation.
“I think that one of the main things is to solve systemic, not personal issues,” the politician told Elta, admitting that the reaction of some special services to the conclusions of the investigation is not adequate.
“Maybe there will be those who will say – it is necessary to demand heads. But we often solve problems by replacing one head with another – and we have the same thing again. I think it shouldn’t be that way”, reasoned S. Skvernelis.
However, when asked if he still trusts D. Jauniškis and L. Pernavas, the leader of “Vardan Lietuvos” mentioned that he wants to familiarize himself with the classified research material.
“After that, maybe something will change. But I personally see no reason not to trust the head of VSD or the head of STT. The services are very important, personnel issues should not be touched on today”, he repeated, without ruling out that the Seimas Democrats may decide to invite the leaders of VSD or STT to the faction meeting.
E. Gentvilas: the non-accounting of services with the Seimas is starting to sting
At that time, the elder of the Liberal faction of the Seimas, Eugenijus Gentvilas, assessed the behavior of the services and their leaders much more harshly. The long-time parliamentarian notes that an obvious attack on the parliament can be seen in the activities of the officials appointed by the Seimas and the president.
“I’ll be honest – the non-compliance of the special services with the Seimas is just beginning to sting my eyes. I do not want Lithuania to be a state ruled by special services. (…) I see that the Seimas as an institution is despised and the temporary commission of inquiry established by the Seimas, which did not exceed its powers”, E. Gentvilas said to Elta.
“Actually, there is dissatisfaction with the conclusions adopted by the commission and the right of the Seimas to do certain things is being questioned. The General Prosecutor’s Office also joined that chorus, which simply complains to the Seimas – having initiated the investigation itself, now begins to question and criticize what the Seimas’ temporary investigation commission did,” he wondered at the prosecutors’ appeals to the Seimas’ ethics watchdogs.
The politician tends to associate this attitude of the services with the mistakes made by the law enforcement when investigating the report of T. Gailius.
“I would say that this is a conflict at the constitutional level, in which the Seimas is attacked as the last counterweight in the fight against the potentially illegal actions of the special services,” he reasoned.
“Neither is the Seimas a younger brother for the president, and the Speaker of the Seimas is not a younger sister, nor is the Seimas a younger stepbrother for the special services. We have democratic mandates and must ensure democratic actions – be it the actions of the president or special, other services,” the liberal noted.
However, the politician does not clearly indicate whether, in his opinion, D. Jauniškis and L. Pernavas should retire from their positions.
“These are institutions partially subordinate to the Seimas. Folklore describes the process I’m seeing now as follows: the tail wags the dog. We appointed them, and they begin to lead us”, E. Gentvilas illustrated the situation with metaphors.
“I do not rule out the possibility that we, in the group or in a wider format, will invite the heads of special services to express what seems to be kept silent,” he added.
The Social Democrats remain skeptical about the findings about the services’ performance
The social democrats, who met the conclusions of the parliamentary investigation with skepticism, are not inclined to dramatize the accusations leveled at the leaders of the VSD and STT. Parliamentarian Gintautas Paluckas notices that the conclusions of the investigation commission of the VSD reporter are not based on factual information, but on interpretations.
“What is stated does not lead to the conclusion itself. In other words, what is mentioned in the conclusion as the fact that someone abused, someone deliberately misled – the commission itself does not indicate such facts in that statement. This is an interpretation or an assumption,” explained G. Paluckas.
“For other assumptions, we don’t tend to look for harassment consciously, because the very structure of the conclusion does not hold criticism – when three witnesses are interviewed, they all say ‘no, it wasn’t,’ the conclusion says – ‘it can be assumed that there was,'” he wondered.
G. Paluckas, like his opposition colleague S. Skvernelis, said that he wanted to get acquainted with the information of the investigation marked with secrecy. However, based on the statements of the chairman of the commission, Vytautas Bakos, the social democrat notes that only a small part of the investigation’s findings is classified.
ELTA reminds that the conclusions of the parliamentary commission that investigated the history of the VSD speaker, presented last week, cast a shadow on the leadership of VSD and STT. After several months of analysis and the testimonies of a dozen officials, it was established that the head of the Security Service, Darius Jauniškis, helped the then candidate Gitan Nausėda by collecting intelligence information about his environment.
At that time, the head of STT, Linas Pernavas, according to the conclusions, abused his duties by refusing to provide the commission with the information gathered during the criminal intelligence investigation and by misleading the members of the commission.
The conclusions of the investigation also state that during the parliamentary investigation, it became clear that the VSD investigated possible violations by financing the election campaign of the then candidate G. Nausėda.
The investigation commission also assessed the violations regarding the revealed identity of the whistleblower T. Gailaus – it is established that the director of the VSD, D. Jauniškis, is directly responsible for this.
2024-04-07 06:54:09