We are talking about frictions in the ruling coalition: Čmilytė-Nielsen’s behavior shows that tensions are high

Lithuanian morning television and portal alpha.lt Rimvydas Paleckis, host of the radio news program “Events and Comments”, said on Monday that the statement of the president of the Seimas V. Čmilytė-Nielsen against the Lithuanian passport points to problems in the ruling coalition.

“It just came to our attention then. Admittedly, she has always been skeptical about it. But what was announced today, and his quote, is that “the energy of colleagues would be better spent helping closed companies.” It means that it is not necessary to create a passport, because it will soon be European. Here’s a throwback to the Freedom Party because it’s in such a rush to do it. And it is the question of funds that all pandemics have distracted us from spending money. (…) It seems to me that V. Čmilytė-Nielsen felt that perhaps the Party of the Ministry of Freedom, the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, is spending money too easily. When money is needed to help companies survive ”, said the journalist.

He said that information about the coalition’s problems appeared in the media.

“The Freedom Party has problems with the coalition, or the coalition has problems with the Freedom Party. And several options have already been mentioned here that could be replaced by the Social Democrats or the Labor Party. But here is another issue. I think this already shows that tensions in the coalition are high. And V. Čmilytė-Nielsen says that, “commented R. Paleckis on Knowledge Radio’s” Events and Comments “program.

The political scientist of the University Mykolas Romeris (MRU) Saulius Spurga was surprised by the statements of the Spokesman of the Seimas

“There are strange things here. Such a statement by the President of the Seimas in terms of a particularly sensitive issue, a passport of opportunities, problems of a pandemic. And in this way, he would hit his own coalition hard and cause so much confusion and confusion. In fact, something else had to happen here, ”said S. Spurga.

He was surprised by such a “cut” from the head of the Seimas on this subject.

“The two are not so closely related”

On Monday, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė also emphasized that the European Green Card and the Lithuanian Opportunity Passport will work differently. The European will be used for travel and the Lithuanian will expand people’s access to certain services or activities during the quarantine.

“We always see this as a kind of intermediate solution to the European certificate, which has a completely different idea and purpose: it is mainly related to travel between countries. This means that it must be a system that countries recognize multilaterally or bilaterally” he told reporters at the Seimas on Monday.

The passport of opportunity, he said, would not be for travel but for certain activities within the country.

“Here we are talking about purely internal objectives that could allow, at a time when the epidemiological situation still does not allow lifting the quarantine restrictions, subjecting some activities to certain conditions related to vaccination, immunity or human infection tests.” pointed out I. Šimonytė.

Therefore, the European Green Certificate and the National Opportunity Passport would serve different purposes, but they could work together.

“It just came to our attention then. Perhaps they are more concerned with a technical solution: we need to find a solution that, when a European solution comes up, is not conflictual and does not have to be redone. As the principles are very similar, I don’t think it is necessary to do so ”, added the Prime Minister.

Speaking about how much it will cost to implement the idea of ​​a passport of opportunity, I. Šimonytė stated that the technical solutions will not require a lot of funds.

“Once I have all the technical information, I will be able to answer, but it definitely won’t ‘cost a cow,'” he said.