None of the ruling parties requested a meeting with A. Kubilius.
Named his biggest mistake
The first on the list is the Democratic Union “Vardan Lietuvos” faction. Its leader, Saulius Skvernelis, asked A. Kubilius how it happened that for some time everyone was talking about the candidate of the conservatives being Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, and in the end it was A. Kubilius.
He said that he did not want to repeat himself, because he had already answered this question several times.
“We all understand that our procedure is, as Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said, baroquely complicated – a consensus between the Prime Minister, the President, and the Seimas. That consensus did not exist because of G. Landsberg, but somehow it came about because of me. I can’t judge whether this is a spare or not a spare,” said A. Kubilius.
According to him, he should have quickly understood his responsibility and accepted Prime Minister I. Šimonytė’s unexpected offer.
“Did I prepare for this? I didn’t really think about it. But if I see what can be done, then I really see it,” the MEP asserted, noting that the most important thing for Europe now is security.
S. Skvernelis also asked A. Kubiliaus to name specifically what mistakes he thinks he made when he held the position of prime minister, and whether he would like to apologize for them.
“There are always mistakes, what can you say here…” said A. Kubilius.
S. Skvernelis, who also served as prime minister, joked whether it was his mistake to become prime minister. A. Kubilius laughed that he himself was thinking of a nicer way to say it here.
“I say all the time that there is such an inner tuning fork. I don’t know what it was like for you when you were prime minister, but you are criticized for making mistakes and so on, sometimes, so to speak, it overwhelms me, but I always trust my inner tuning fork, whether I did well or badly here. If, despite the criticism, the inner tuning fork says we did it right…
I could say one such (mistake), where it is on my conscience, that we were not able to agree or control, or there is much that can be said about the Visaginas nuclear power plant. Lithuania then went to the referendum and we have what we have. We could have done it differently”, admitted A. Kubilius.
Another political wolf, Zigmantas Balčytis, wished A. Kubilis success and claimed that he did not doubt his experience. However, because of his past, he said he would not support his candidacy.
A. Kubilius was not offended at all by such a statement – he said that he understood that the elections were approaching and this was natural.
When asked what portfolios he could apply for, A. Kubilius considered that he would be suitable for many areas, he would not be afraid of economic portfolios, but in his opinion, the highest probability is that he would receive the security-related portfolio of the European Commissioner.
After the meeting with the democrats, A. Kubilius visited the representatives of the Mixed Seimas group. Here, MP Aidas Gedvilas asked how he himself thinks, whether the delay in the question of the European Commissioner is not simply G. Landsberg’s stubbornness.
“In my opinion, G. Landsbergis would also have been a really good commissioner, but the Lithuanian procedure, as I said, has both pluses and minuses – it takes a long time, but that’s how it is. And if there is no agreement between the prime minister and the president, you cannot become a candidate.
Why there was no such consensus – again, we have already talked and discussed that, and I have nothing more to add here.
Whether I was convinced by the president’s arguments or not – again, someone may have convinced me, someone may not, but the president has the right to say “I disagree”.
For a long time, it seemed that we might be able to convince the president”, A. Kubilius thought.
“I’m not going on vacation”
The last stop of A. Kubilius is the Social Democratic faction. Seimas member Julius Sabatauskas mentioned at the meeting that A. Kubilius was allegedly “raised from the bench” and asked whether he would have the determination and motivation to work in the European Commission.
However, A. Kubilius considered that he does not really feel like a backup – it is said that President G. Nausėda’s attitudes regarding G. Landsbergi have not changed in a long time, so I. Šimonyte had to seek consensus on another candidate.
“This is just how our candidate approval procedure works, which may have worked a little differently this time than before,” A. Kubilius told the Social Democrats.
He repeated that G. Nausėda’s political support surprised him, because during the entire period of the president’s leadership, he did not avoid criticizing him.
“I see what is possible and what needs to be done. It is clear that going to the job of a commissioner is a new test, but everyone who went to the job of a European commissioner did not really know what was waiting for them”, said A. Kubilius.
“In a political sense, I see and know what and how it could be done, and I’m definitely not going on vacation,” assured A. Kubilius.
Voting on the candidacy of A. Kubilias will take place in the afternoon. If the Seimas approves his candidacy, the politician who is now a member of the European Parliament will still have to pass the Brussels exam.
All parties of the ruling coalition have already publicly expressed their support for the candidate proposed by the Prime Minister for the position of European Commissioner. The opposition parties will behave differently – some will not strictly support it, others assure that they will support the decision of President Gitanas Nausėdas to support the candidacy of A. Kubilius.
It is no secret that the conservatives’ first choice for the European Commissioners was to delegate their chairman, Minister of Foreign Affairs G. Landsbergis. However, the head of the country G. Nausėda, who repeated many times that he saw better candidates than the leader of the conservatives, put his foot in his way.
G. Landsbergis made it clear that previous conflicts with the Presidency – the so-called “Phantom of the Opera” scandal – could also have influenced this. For its part, the Presidency not only rejected the accusations of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but also emphasized that G. Nausėda “saved” the conservative leader from “terrible humiliation”.
According to Frederiks Jansons, the chief advisor of the president, it was almost obvious that not only the opposition, but also the ruling party, did not want to support G. Landsbergis, who applied for the position of European commissioner.
The nomination of the Eurocommissioner is submitted by the Government after the position has been agreed with the President and the Seimas.
2024-09-04 04:38:34