Lithuania’ s center-left opposition parties yesterday celebrated victory after prevailing over the center-right ruling coalition in the final round of national elections.
With 100 percent of votes counted from Sunday’s polls, the Social Democrats won 52 seats in the 141-seat parliament, known as the Seimas, ending the four-year rule of the Homeland Union government led by conservative Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte.
The Social Democrats will start talks on forming a majority Cabinet with two smaller center-left parties, the Democratic Union and the Union of Peasants and Greens, which won 14 and 8 seats respectively. The coalition is expected to control at least 74 seats.
Simonyte’s Homeland Union won only 28 seats in the two-round election.
Vilija Blinkeviciute, who heads the Social Democrats, thanked supporters as a cheering crowd celebrated victory in downtown Vilnius.
“I am very grateful to the people of Lithuania who were so active today voting for us” she said, adding that “the results have shown that the people want change, a completely different government.”
The outcome was a surprise to the ruling conservatives, who were only two seats behind the Social Democrats after the first round.
Analysts had predicted that Lithuania is set to continue a historic pattern where voters tend to look a different way every four years.
Simonyte conceded, noting the pattern.
“In Lithuania that’s the way it is, every election we see the pendulum swinging in one direction or the other,” she told reporters. “We respect the will of the voters.”
The vote in Lithuania, which borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west and Belarus to the east, came at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine is fueling greater fears about Moscow’s intentions, particularly in the strategically important Baltic region.
Analysts say there would not be any significant change in Lithuania’s foreign policy. The EU and NATO member is a staunch supporter of Ukraine.
The outgoing government faced criticism for the strict measures it adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many complaining that her government did not do enough to help companies during lockdown. Others say thousands of people did not have proper access to healthcare.
Simonyte has also been lambasted for her handling of migrants arriving via Belarus. Lithuania has claimed its eastern neighbor, as well as Russia, was orchestrating the influx of people, mostly from Africa and the Middle East.
Although the country has seen annual double-digit personal income growth and has one of the lowest inflation in the 27-nation bloc, most voters did not seem to be impressed.
The results also mean that the new Cabinet can be formed without the populist Nemuno Ausra party, which came in third, with 20 seats. Its leader, Remigijus Zemaitaitis, had to resign from parliament earlier this year for making anti-Semitic statements.
Following the results, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis announced his resignation from the leadership of Homeland Union and said he was leaving politics.
Turnout on Sunday was 41.31 percent, among the highest for a runoff.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests. Analysis by London-based think tank Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island (Jhongjian Island, 中建島) on the southwest corner of the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), building what might be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery and sophisticated radar system. “By constraining the US ability to operate stealth aircraft, and threaten stealth aircraft, these capabilities in the South China Sea send
HAVANA: Repeated blackouts have left residents of the Cuban capital concerned about food, water supply and the nation’s future, but so far, there have been few protests Maria Elena Cardenas, 76, lives in a municipal shelter on Amargura Street in Havana’s colonial old town. The building has an elegant past, but for the last few days Maria has been cooking with sticks she had found on the street. “You know, we Cubans manage the best we can,” she said. She lives in the shelter because her home collapsed, a regular occurrence in the poorest, oldest parts of the beautiful city. Cuba’s government has spent the last days attempting to get the island’s national grid functioning after repeated island-wide blackouts. Without power, sleep becomes difficult in the heat, food
U-TURN? Trami was moving northwest toward Vietnam yesterday, but high-pressure winds and other factors could force it to turn back toward the Philippines Tropical Storm Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines yesterday, leaving at least 65 people dead in landslides and extensive flooding that forced authorities to scramble for more rescue boats to save thousands of terrified people, who were trapped, some on their roofs. However, the onslaught might not be over: State forecasters raised the rare possibility that the storm — the 11th and one of the deadliest to hit the Philippines this year — could make a U-turn next week as it is pushed back by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea. A Philippine provincial police chief yesterday said that 33
PROPAGANDA: The leaflets attacked the South Korean president and first lady with phrases such as: ‘It’s fortunate that President Yoon and his wife have no children’ North Korean propaganda leaflets apparently carried by balloons were found scattered on the streets of the South Korean capital, Seoul, yesterday, including some making personal attacks on the country’s president and first lady. The leaflets attacking South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee found in the capital appear to be the first instance of the North Korean government directly sending anti-South propaganda material across the border. They included graphic messages accusing the Yoon government of failures that had left his people living in despair, and describing the first couple as immoral and mentally unstable. The leaflets included photographs of the
RSS