Prime Minister: this Seimas could still make the impeachment vote open

According to the head of the government, the Constitution should also be changed in the future and the legal immunity of parliamentarians should be waived when it is desired to bring them to criminal responsibility, and the mandate of the parliamentarian should be automatically revoked following the conviction comes into effect.

“It seems to me that a short decision is needed, what else can this Seimas do, that is to adopt an amendment to the statute (of the Seimas) so that such votes are open, then all these manipulations would end, because one should express one’s opinion openly (…) I think there is nothing to hide here, there must be an open vote”, said I. Šimonytė in an interview with Info TV on Thursday.

“And looking to the future, although these are constitutional provisions, it is necessary to speak openly regarding it and propose those provisions, simply to change the Constitution so that there is no such immunity that sometimes allows Seimas members to hide when the general prosecutor comes to perform procedural actions , (…) and in cases where we are not talking regarding breaking an oath, and maybe even in cases where we are talking regarding breaking an oath, because the Constitutional Court evaluates it, at least when there is a legal decision of the court, so that the Seimas does not have to consider this issue additionally, and the mandate would be automatically lost,” she said.

The Prime Minister rejected the arguments of political opponents and President Gitanas Nausėdas that the ruling party might have agreed with the “workers” that some of them would not support the impeachment of V. Gapšis in exchange for the votes of the Labor Party faction during the earlier impeachment of Seimas member Petrus Gražulis.

“Agree on what?” Why was it necessary for the conservatives (…) to agree on something with the Labor Party?” asked the Head of the Government.

“Neither we sold Gražulis, nor Gapšis, nor here at all, in my understanding, is the subject of negotiations. Why did conservatives have to do that?” she said.

According to the Prime Minister, those in power in the Seimas have 73 votes, and in order to cancel the mandate of a member of the Seimas, at least 85 parliamentarians must vote for it.

According to I.Šimonytė, the president should rather ask some representatives of the opposition why they did not go to vote during the impeachment of V.Gapšis, although they publicly declared their support for it.

“It seems to me that Gražulis was a shame for the entire Seimas, and I am glad that the Seimas was able to resolve this issue. The fact that Gapšis is a member of the Seimas is also a shame for the Seimas, but why did the conservatives have to negotiate to prevent him from being removed from the Seimas? I can’t think of any rational reason,” the Head of Government asserted.

According to her, V. Gapšys, who has retained his mandate, will not be able to attend sessions of the Seimas in any case, so sooner or later he will have to apply to the Constitutional Court for breaking his oath.

“He is formally a member of the Seimas, he will not be able to attend meetings (…) probably then the question will arise, by analogy with Neringa Venckiene, whether such a member of the Seimas has not violated his oath. Probably, such a question will also have to be raised at some point”, said I.Šimonytė.

In 2014, the Constitutional Court recognized that N. Venckienė broke her oath and grossly violated the Constitution by not attending sessions of the Seimas for more than a year without a justifiable reason.

Last Thursday, the Seimas did not have enough votes to cancel the sentence once morest V. Gapši, because during the voting for the four episodes of the criminal act, none of them received the mandatory minimum number of votes – 85 – of the members of the Seimas, which is needed to cancel the mandate. The maximum number of votes for impeachment was 75.

In November, the Court of Appeal of Lithuania sentenced V. Gapšius to five and a half years in prison for corruption crimes, and he is currently serving time in Kaunas prison.

The politician was convicted for taking a bribe from Raimonds Kurlianskis, the former vice president of MG Baltic (now MG Group). As a bribe, discounts were given to the Labor Party for its advertising during the elections, and V. Gapšys promised to influence fellow party members to fulfill the businessman’s requests.