2024-05-04 08:26:29
This is already the second debate in which all candidates seeking the post of president participate. At the beginning of last week, on the air of LRT television, they discussed the current affairs of foreign policy, this time – about defense and national defense.
Team members supporting them sat behind the candidates. President Gitanas Nausėda, who is seeking a second term, again brought his advisers, but it is also interesting that among them was established social democrat Dovilė Šakalienė. The Social Democrats do not nominate their candidate in the elections and publicly expressed their support for G. Nausėda.
The team of doctor Eduard Vaitkaus, who is seeking the position of the head of the country, brought with them colorful posters that read: “Peace, sovereignty, harmony”, “Stop arming”.
Do you have a so-called “going away bag”?
The debate began with the question of whether the candidates have a so-called “away bag” of food and other supplies that would be needed in case of an emergency. Such a bag was especially talked about in February 2022, after Russia attacked Ukraine, the residents of the country were encouraged to pack it on the special website lt72.lt.
Labor Party candidate Andrius Mazuronis replied that he does not have such a bag, because he “doesn’t believe he needs it”. At that time, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and the candidate of the Democratic Union “Vardan Lietuvos” Giedrim Jeglinskas assured that such a bag was ready.
The candidate of the Freedom Party, Dainius Žalimas, stated that it is currently being “prepared”, and the current leader of the country, G. Nausėda, gave a similar answer, adding that he does not yet have everything he might need.
Lawyer Ignas Vēgėlė and E. Vaitkus testified that they do not have such a bag, while the candidate of the party “Nemunas ausra” Remigijus Žemaitaitis answered that he always has such a bag because “he travels a lot”.
I. Šimonytė reacted to E. Vaitkaus’ words
The candidates’ debate asked how they would ensure a more consistent and effective implementation of universal defense. E. Vaitkaus’s opinion immediately stood out here.
“You say universal defense? Who are we going to war with? What diplomacy, what plans, what politicians led to the fact that we now have to go to war with someone in little Lithuania? What did we do that such a situation happened, what did our government do?” – asked E. Vaitkus.
He added that the threat to the country’s national security is posed by the politicians themselves, E. Vaitkus criticized the Department of State Security, which allegedly directly participates in the election campaign and “it is not clear who works”, and criticized the Supreme Election Commission, which allegedly does not organize equal elections and causes danger to the people of Lithuania.
Prime Minister I.Šimonytė responded to this opponent’s speech. According to her, there are three key things that are important for public involvement, and the importance of one of them is proved by the words of E. Vaitkaus.
“The first thing is resistance – so that the public can understand that what Mr. Vaitkus just said here is propaganda of the Kremlin, and be able to distinguish this propaganda from what is the truth and what are the values that can be defended.” she retorted.
While discussing the principles of universal defense, some candidates were happy about the activities of the Riflemen’s Union and emphasized its importance, but here again E. Vaitkus jumped out.
“The head of the shooters’ union is publicly discussing how to kill the signatory Vaišvilas, and we all tolerate it,” said the candidate for president, waving his hand at Zigma Vaišvilas, who was sitting behind him, causing a sarcastic smile from G. Nausėda and I. Šimonytė.
Would you support mandatory general conscription?
Candidates were asked whether they would support mandatory general conscription. The Labor Party candidate Andrius Mazuronis, who spoke first, emphasized that both he and the political force he leads do not support the idea of a general election.
According to him, universal conscription is an “expensive thing that does not add as much value to national defense and our defense as could be done by investing those funds in air defense, anti-ship systems, drone production capabilities, defense industrial development and things like that.”
“Then respected Andrius will go to Finland, see how big the reserve is in Finland and say why we don’t have such a reserve as the Finns,” I. Šimonytė replied, appealing to A. Mazuronis’ earlier criticism of the Government that, otherwise, nor Finns, do not hand out leaflets to people with instructions on how to act in the event of a threat.
The conservative candidate for president claimed to support the idea of a universal convocation, but pointed out that its implementation is possible only in certain stages.
“Those stages need to be planned, the Government has done that, and we need to move forward in those stages”, said I.Šimonytė.
G. Nausėda said that he supports the mandatory universal convocation, but its implementation, according to him, must be planned wisely, because the current selective system raises many questions about its transparency.
“A clear system, clear principles would allow us to first of all form a sufficient number of conscripts through general conscription, which would automatically have a positive effect on the active reserve of our army, which is 27-28 thousand, while the total reserve is more than 100 thousand.
We cannot have a sufficient reserve if we do not use our young people through universal conscription,” he said.
For his part, E. Vaitkus explained that the general convocation would not solve any of Lithuania’s security or defense problems.
“The example of Ukraine proves that. Cannon fodder is in order, it is necessary if we decide to go to war on the territory of Lithuania, but for that we also need diplomacy so that there is no war”, said the candidate.
“No number of soldiers in Lithuania, let there be a million of them, will never protect Lithuania. We can allocate 20 billion euros per year, our entire budget, for war purposes, we will not be saved from our wrong foreign policy, and no general appeal will help us in this place,” he added.
Democratic candidate G. Jeglinskas noted that universal conscription is a very important element of strengthening our society and we must do everything we can to give young people enough experience so that they are ready and become real pariahs of the country.
“But we have to ask the question, why are we doing conscription – to increase the reserve or to strengthen our civil society?” I think that both of these questions are not contradictory to each other”, said G. Jeglinskas.
R. Žemaitaitis said that for the time being he refrains from approving the general call, because he says he does not receive answers to the questions of how much it would cost us and what benefits it would bring. He is also suspicious of exceptions, why some young people must serve, while others can easily avoid service.
Freedom Party candidate D. Žalimas emphasized that even in the Constitution it is established that all citizens have a military obligation, from which even the clergy cannot be exempted.
“Obviously, we will definitely reach that true universality if we are serious about creating a national division with appropriate funding in the long run,” he said.
I. Vėgėlė, who nominated himself, said that he does not support the general conscription, because Lithuania has limited finances, so they should be allocated to its professional army. And for ordinary people, the government could organize compulsory courses and liberalize the purchase of weapons.
G. Nausėda: “Are you going to lead the pigeons?”
I. Šimonytė answered that universal compulsory conscription is necessary for that, so that people know how to deal with those weapons.
“You contradict yourself when you say that conscription is expensive, but professional military service is even more expensive. For that reason, states that currently do not have conscription are considering bringing it back,” she noted.
“And this very well reflects the changed perception of security threats, regardless of what Mr. Vaitkus is saying here, because his foreign policy is probably to immediately surrender, join the Kremlin, and then you won’t have to go to war with anyone,” said I.Šimonytė.
Presidential candidate E. Vaitkus replied that the war is allegedly promoted by our government, and his goal is to avoid war and live with neighbors.
“Tell us in Crimea or in Donbas how it works,” snapped I.Šimonytė.
E. Vaitkus’s remarks angered G. Nausėdas as well: “I wasn’t going to react to what Mr. Vaitkus said, well, but I can’t. Do you know that we are candidates for the position called Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Are you going to lead the pigeons?”
Accused of misleading
Speaking about the development of capacities, I. Vēgėlė stung the state leaders about the shelters in the country, where people could hide in case of war.
“Going there is probably just looking for death. It’s a pity that no one has done an inventory until now – in Vilnius we have many such things where you can sneak in, but we haven’t even made an inventory, maybe because there are not many Vilnius residents,” said I. Vēgėlė.
I.Šimonytė, in turn, accused the lawyer of misleading. “What has already been done is certainly an inventory, and we know exactly how many shelters we have, how many collective defense barrels we have,” she explained.
I. Vēgėlė replied that the kindergarten is not a shelter, so we need to talk about real hiding places.
G. Nausėda also spoke about civilian shelters, adding that most of the shelters today probably do not meet the most important requirements.
“The problem is that we have inventoried it, but the technical regulation or conditions were approved, if memory serves, on March 28 of this year. It is a question of whether, according to these technical conditions, what we have inventoried meets those conditions. (…) In terms of quality, these are, unfortunately, things that do not meet the requirements”, G. Nausėda reflected.
“There are conditions for new construction, so you need to understand that very clearly, so that when you build a house from scratch, you can fully implement those requirements and you must implement them. But when we talk about what we have now, we have to use all the assets that have already been created, according to the purposes for which they may need to be used,” said I.Šimonytė.
The first round of presidential elections will take place on May 12.
2024-05-04 08:26:29