The Council of the ruling coalition will discuss next year’s budget, support for partnership legalization

The Freedom Party promises to raise the issue of the coalition partners’ support for the adoption of the Civil Union Law.

“The meeting is intended to discuss the upcoming budget consideration process,” Liberal Movement faction elder Eugenijus Gentvilas told BNS.

The first reading of the 2024 state budget project in the Seimas was supposed to take place last Tuesday, but then due to a violation of the Seimas statute, the issue was removed from the agenda at the suggestion of the opposition. Two members of the Freedom faction belonging to the ruling coalition – Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius and Ieva Pakarklytė – voted for this proposal.

Previously, disagreements arose in the ruling coalition over the tax reform, the “free people” were dissatisfied with the rejected amendments to the law on the protection of minors, and insufficient support for the legalization of partnerships.

This week, the Government would like to rush forward with the 2024 budget draft: it is planned to hold its first reading in the Seimas on Tuesday, the draft returned on Wednesday should be considered by the Government, and already on Thursday it would be considered for the second time in the Parliament.

Chairperson of the Freedom Party, Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė told BNS on Monday that she, in turn, will seek to discuss the coalition parties’ support for the Civil Union Law, which aims to basically legalize gender-neutral partnerships. The final vote on this project remains in the Seimas.

“Today, we will discuss the budget at the coalition council, and I also asked the coalition partners to discuss support for the civil union in order to assess how much the coalition gathers votes for the adoption of the law,” she said.

According to E. Gentvil, he would like to talk with the members of the coalition council about the situation in the coalition.

The leaders of the coalition also promise to discuss amendments to the Law on the Chamber of Dentists regarding the right to grant licenses to this self-governing body of dentists.