“We record this change of opinion as echoes of the upcoming elections,” he told reporters in the Seimas on Tuesday.
This is how G. Landsbergis commented on the situation in the governing coalition, when Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė clashed with the leader of the Freedom Party, Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrina Armonaita during the Government meeting at the end of October regarding the economic recovery plan. The minister voted against the updated economic recovery plan.
“It would be really expected that the parties that want to be seen as responsible, non-populist political forces, would consider their commitments and decisions that Lithuania needs when the documents are presented in the first stage,” said the leader of the conservatives.
“In other words, when the Government’s programs are considered, commitments are made, not one budget is presented, but a proposed budget, in which expenses are also increased for the areas of those ministers, it is unpopulist to say that we have certain fears, which in the long run may lead to our abstention in the last stage. This was not the case now, there were no indications, it was agreed, agreed, all the discussions took place, but when some nominal election period approaches, then we put on the brakes and say that certain problems have emerged”, said G. Landsbergis.
He said tax reform and the accompanying economic recovery plan were proposed to address long-standing problems, something the conservative said previous governments had failed to do.
“I would call what is happening now populist football, how to assign the problem to the next Government. This has been done until now, all governments avoided, did not want to, bypassed the questions, circumvented the proposals of the European Commission, which are certainly not the first year they have been presented to us”, asserted G. Landsbergis.
On October 30, when the Government was deliberating on coordinating with the European Commission the updated economic recovery plan “New Generation Lithuania”, A. Armonaitė suggested further negotiations with the EC regarding the review of tax-related indicators.
After the discussion between I. Šimonytė and A. Armonaitė broke out in the meeting and when the Prime Minister was asked to indicate specific arguments why the minister does not support the updated plan, A. Armonaitė said that she did not know “what kind of genre this is”.
“I don’t really understand why this is happening here… I can’t even find the word,” she said.
“The plates are breaking,” replied the Prime Minister.
Later, the Head of the Government told journalists that the minister’s proposal was unethical.
A. Armonaitė, for her part, claimed that the separation of positions in the coalition is a natural phenomenon.
Next year, the presidential, European Parliament and Seimas elections will be held in Lithuania.
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2024-08-31 02:54:24
