He Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSDP), led by Vilija Blinkeviciute and in favor of maintaining strong support for kyiv, won the first legislative elections celebrated in this Baltic country bordering Russia and Belarus since the invasion of Ukraine. Two million Lithuanians were called to the polls in the second round this Sunday, of whom 41.31% exercised their right according to data from the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), ten points less than in the first round two weeks ago .
The LSDP has expressed its intention to form a coalition with two other centrist parties currently in opposition, the Democratic Union “For Lithuania” (DSVL) and the Union of Lithuanian Peasants and Greens (LVZS). With that, will overthrow the government to the alliance formed by the conservatives Lithuanian National Union-Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) of Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte and two other center-right parties.
“The election result shows that the Lithuanian people, no matter where they live – in big or small cities or in villages – want change, they want a completely different government,” Blinkeviciute said at his party headquarters, in statements cited by the public. LRT chain. For his part, the leader of the TS-LKD, Gabrielius Landsbergis, admitted his defeat and expressed the hope that a “Responsible government”.
A center-left coalition A total of six parties gained representation in the unicameral Parliament or Seimas, with 141 seats. Counting the results of 1,672 of the 1,685 polling stations, the LSDP won 52 seats according to LRT projections, with a large advantage compared to the 28 of the ruling TS-LKD.
In third place, with 20 mandates, is Nemunas Aušra (NA) or Dawn of the Nemunas (for Lithuania’s largest river), a nationalist and Eurosceptic party founded last year by controversial MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis. The centrists DSVL and LVZS won 14 and eight seats respectivelywhich allows them to comfortably form, with the social democrats, a majority capable of governing, while the Liberal Movement, partner of the current executive, obtained 12.
According to Blinkeviciute, negotiations to form a government will begin this evening, but the current MP did not want to specify whether she herself aspires to occupy the post of Prime Minister or whether another member of her party will do so. In this Sunday’s round 63 direct mandates were resolved corresponding to the constituencies in which no candidate had exceeded 40%, while in the previous round eight direct mandates had already been allocated and 70 distributed proportionally by lists in a single national constituency.
Support for Ukraine
According to analysts, an executive led by the LSDP will move to the left in domestic politics Compared to the outgoing conservative government, Blinkeviciute has pledged to raise taxes on the richest and increase social and health spending. However, it will maintain the strong support for Ukraine that has characterized Lithuania since the Russian invasion and the plan to increase military spending beyond 3.5% of GDP.
In proportion, the small Baltic country of barely three million inhabitants, bordering to the south with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and to the east with Belarus, It is the sixth contributor to NATO.
The Simonyte government has lost popularity in recent years due to several political scandals in which ministers have been involved, as well as the sharp increase in inflation and the resulting high cost of living. His management of the Covid pandemic and the migration crisis on the border with Belarus had also been the subject of criticism.
The emergence in the political landscape of NA, an economically left-wing but socially right-wing party skeptical of support for Ukraine, had raised doubts about the position of a future LDSP government, given the possibility of it being included in a coalition. However, the rest of the political forces They formed a sort of cordon santé against the populist formation in part because of the statements of its leader qualified as anti-Semitic and the LDSP declared that it saw no “common points” with the party.
