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“It just came to our attention then. I am so disappointed to conclude from what has happened in recent years that I clearly see a lack of political will. First of all, in the municipality of Vilnius,” G. Nausėda told reporters at Vilnius on Thursday.
According to him, the municipality has been involved in this process for a long time, even choosing a place on Gediminas Avenue, near the Government building, then withdrew from it and then “said that it has nothing against Smeton, but that he would like the competition ”. to be reorganized ”. Because both the place and the decision of the artists are not appropriate.
“The municipality should answer the question very clearly, because I think those suspicions are justified: could we just ruin the construction of the Smetona monument, or do we really think it could be implemented in another way? If there was a second option, the Vilnius municipality could have behaved differently from the beginning, ”said G. Nausėda.
“Therefore, I would like to dispel those doubts, which, sadly, is that this is only an attempt to highlight Vilnius and Smeton. Historically, Vilnius and Smetona cannot be distinguished, but in the minds of our bureaucrats that can be organized. divorce process. We are waiting for answers, the Minister of Culture is waiting for answers, I am also waiting, “said the President.
The project “622522” won the competition announced by the former government last October. Its authors Gediminas Antanas Sakalis, Kazys Venclovas, Indrė Rakauskaitė propose to build a sculpture that represents the cover of a book or a postcard with the portrait of this interwar president in the space of Gediminas Avenue, together with the Government.
The monument to A. Smetona is planned to be erected in Vilnius near the building marked 13 on Gediminas Avenue, across from Vincas Kudirka Square.
In early April, the Vilnius City Council adopted a resolution requesting the Government to suspend the implementation of the tender results, as their representatives were not included in the project’s tender commission organized by the Ministry of Culture and was assigned very little time to present projects.
In addition, the council promised to consider and present to the government within two months proposals for alternative sites for the construction of a monument to President Antanas Smetona.
The Lithuanian State Council worked on the building that was in the mentioned place in 1918, which has not survived to this day, its president was A. Smetona, and the first cabinets of the Lithuanian state, headed by Augustinas Voldemaras and Mykolas Šleževičius. , it also worked.
Also published here was the periodical information publication “Provisional Government News” of the main laws and government orders of the independent state of independent Lithuania.
A. Smetona was President of Lithuania in 1919-1920 and 1926-1940. He died in 1944 after a fire at his home in the United States.
Lithuanians recognize the merits of A. Smetona in the restoration of the statehood of Lithuania in the interwar period, the progress of the state at that time, but sometimes his coming to power by coup and the withdrawal of Lithuania from the Soviet occupation are controversial.
G. Nausėda has called A. Smetonas a symbol of Lithuanian statehood.
