Ingrida Šimonytė’s slogan carried us into 2018: Vladimir Putin also wanted to be strong

Both criticized and mocked

Last Friday evening, the program and election slogan following presenting conservative representative I.Šimonytė received a lot of attention, but not very pleasant.

Already under the post on the Facebook account of the Union of Fatherland-Lithuanian Christian Democrats, where the slogan “Strong president – strong country” was published, there were not only praises for the candidate and reproaches for her as the prime minister, but also hints that the phrase resembles a phrase used by V. Putin.

Photo of I.Šimonytė’s team/Questions were raised by the presidential candidate’s slogan

The next day, I.Šimonytė’s choice began to be criticized openly.

Lawyer Dominykas Vanhara, who shared the candidate’s slogan with Euronews of the articlewhose title quoted a phrase used by the newly elected president V. Putin, with photos suggested look for differences.

“We have to hope that the conservatives didn’t overpay for the slogan… because they might have to pay for the copyright,” – sarcastically commented Arnoldas Pikžirnis, head of the administration of the Democratic Union “Vardan Lietuvos”, which nominated Giedrima Jeglinskas as a candidate.

He also shared photos not only of I. Šimonytė and her slogan on the screen, but also of V. Putin and the similar phrase “Strong president – strong Russia”.

Agnė Širinskienė, the elder of the group of members of the Mixed Seimas, criticized the post of the representative of the Democrats.

According to her, the prime minister chose the slogan of a murderer for the elections and thus spat in the face not only of the soldiers killed in Ukraine, but also of Lithuanian partisans and exiles.

Bites comments spilled and others Facebook users, such as a publicist Andriaus Tapin, accounts. If some criticized, often not avoiding sarcasm, others frankly teased.

Similarly for the portal 15min Klaipėda University political scientist Gabrielė Burbulytė-Tsiskarishvili also commented: “There are analogies, even overlaps. On the other hand, everyone would agree that a strong country is the aspiration of all candidates. But the way it is arranged raises questions.

It is possible to consider whether there are remnants of the Eastern mentality regarding a strong leader, or lack of thought. Parts of the public and competitors may draw similarities with the images of their eastern neighbors. But maybe that was the team’s goal?”

Phrases will no longer be used

Was the slogan of the conservative candidate really taken from V.Putin’s previous election campaign?

“A weak president means a weak Lithuania? Agree that it is clear to differ from Putin’s slogan, but is this our true vision of Lithuania?

Putin would really like Lithuania to be weak with a weak and depressed president, in order to plant the needles of Gazprom and Rosatom once more”, – this is the answer provided by one of the organizers of the campaign, chairman of the Seimas Budget and Finance Committee Mindaugas Lingė.

According to him, this is a great opportunity to talk regarding what is strength and what is strength in autocracy and strength in democracy.

“Would Putin dare to go to McDonald’s in the evening, even in his own Russia, without protection?” Are you laughing? If he is strong, what is he afraid of? Ingrida is not afraid, and I think there will be those who have seen her in the position of MP”, – explained parliamentarian

In his words, the slogan is a continuation of the idea of ​​the 2020 conservative motto “Give Lithuania more power”, and I.Šimonytė “can continue the vision of strengthening Lithuania”.

Also read: Trouble over Ingrida Šimonytė’s slogan: now she is being compared to V. Putin

However, soon M. Lingė hastened to assure that “the literal version of this slogan will not be usedbut the essential idea and direction remains: a strong candidate would also be a strong president, whose leadership is needed to make Lithuania stronger.”

Do you think I follow Putin’s slogans? Not really.

I.Šimonytė herself did not emphasize the similarity of the phrases, because it is said that “slogans do not win elections”.

When asked if the party and its election headquarters had not looked into the election slogan, she said that they did not follow Russian election slogans. “Do you think I follow Putin’s slogans?” Absolutely not, and what’s more: Putin was not original in that slogan,” the candidate emphasized.

By the way, the news regarding the similarity of I. Šimonytė’s slogan to V. Putin’s and the decision to change it spread beyond the borders of Lithuania. Her reported Ukraine, Russia itself, even countries of the European Union media.

The slogan is still visible today

Despite the explanations of I.Šimonytė’s team regarding the ideological differences of the phrases, in 2018 V. Putin really went to the elections with the slogan “Strong president – strong Russia”.

This is confirmed by a search on the Internet and are found articles. in 2017 December 26 appeared on the “Izvestia” portal essay, that V. Putin’s candidacy for the presidency “was supported by well-known politicians, cultural figures, athletes and volunteers”. The words he chose were not only visible in the headline, but also in the photo that illustrated the text.

Already in 2020 the slogan was quoted by the mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, in his personal blog explainingwhy V. Putin should run once more in the elections.

The slogan is recorded and Presidential Libraries on the web page. It can also be seen in a small Facebook group, for the last election (this is evident from the phrase “putin20182024” visible in the address).

Essays regarding 2018 elections (both during the campaign and following the vote) were often illustrated with pictures of V. Putin standing once morest the background of a slogan written in huge letters. For example, this portal of the German broadcaster “Deutsche Welle”. article.

March 15-17 New presidential elections will be held in Russia. But to this day, photos from the previous campaign, which showed the then-used slogans, are still being used in the public domain. Such a photograph was illustrated on the website last December ura.ru a message regarding the headquarters for collecting signatures for V.Putin’s candidacy opened in Yekaterinburg.

Screenshot from permkrai.er.ru/For this year’s presidential election, Vladimir Putin uses a sign similar to the one in 2018

By the way, current campaigns symbol stylistically little different not only from the previous one, but also from themselves election sign. The colors of the Russian flag – white, blue and red – are used for all, and a similar font – italic capital letters.

Previously, the words “President” and “Russia” were bolded, this year’s slogan only remains “Russia Putin” and added the year. If six years ago the president was mentioned in general, although it was clear which person was being talked regarding, now everything is narrowed down to him.

15min verdict: true. The published slogan of I. Šimonytė’s campaign “Strong president – strong country” is indeed similar to the one used by V. Putin in the 2018 election of the head of Russia (“Strong president – strong Russia”). For this year’s elections, he chose a sign that is both content and visually similar.

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