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Last Friday, the bill on the preservation of the multicultural identity of three members of the Labor Party – Ieva Kačinskaitė – Urbonienė, Vytautas Gapšis and Vaida Giraitytė – registered in the Seimas was included in the agenda of the evening session of the Seimas on Tuesday.
This project is like the twin brother of the draft of the Law on National Minorities being prepared by Evelina Dobrovolska, a parliamentarian for the Freedom Party and Minister of Justice, who has been floating in public space for some time.
I. Kačinskaitė – Urbonienė herself does not hide that “we actually took a lot of things from the information received during the preparation of the mentioned project”, but asserts that “Dobrovolska should not own the authorship of this or the first project”.
According to the representative of the Labor Party, “the ethnic communities and specialists of the country participated in the elaboration of the projects, whose proposals and observations we simply took to the draft law and registered.”
And Audronius Ažubalis, the representative of the National Union in power, the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party in the Seimas, says he is “at least surprised by such initiatives of the little ones.”
“We pay to read the bills, and I say boldly that this bill is basically the thesis of a draft that has already been made public by the Freedom Party in the past. Same virgin, just another dress! From In fact, it must be recognized that the initiatives of Mrs. Dobrovolska are more literate than those offered by the Labor Party, ”says the conservative.
A. Ažubalis, who has previously criticized E. Dobrovolska’s initiatives at the beginning of the bill on national minorities, does not hide that he is only concerned about the timing of the presentation of the bill at the Seimas.
“Only a completely irresponsible or incomprehensible person can present such a project at a time when there is so much political tension around us in the region. Such a project, as I see it hastily presented, is not an attempt to address the problems of national minorities in Lithuania, but an open incitement to public disagreement, even greater than their opposition. On the other hand, it may also be the desire of young politicians to simply focus the media attention on themselves, because such an issue will undoubtedly provoke reactions from the media, “said A. Ažubalis about Delfi on Tuesday morning.
I.Kačinskaitė – Urbonien está does not agree with such accusations and assures that “the presentation has already taken place because until now all the initiatives to regulate the issues of national minorities in our country have remained in drawers: committees or ministries of the Seimas “. According to the member of the Seimas, “it is time to gather everything that is in the drawers.”
Delfi recalls that the Ministry of Justice is currently finalizing the bill on National Minorities, whose origins date back to the time of the Commission for the Preparation of the Draft Law on National Minorities formed by the Government of Saulius Skvernelis in the summer of 2020. E. Dobrovolska also worked in the working groups of the aforementioned commission.
“Our proposed project will eliminate the arguments of manipulative politicians that ethnic communities and minorities in Lithuania are being discriminated against. The law will grant more rights and freedoms to national community organizations, as well as guarantee minority education issues. nationals in the municipalities ”, said I. Kačinskaitė – Urbonienė.
Delfi recalls that the initiative on the legal regulation of the activities and status of national communities was one of the promises made by the Freedom Party and specifically its representative, Justice Minister E. Dobrovolska, when attending the Seimas elections in 2020.
Meanwhile, in its electoral program for the Seimas, the Labor Party spoke about the problems of national minorities in a few lines of its electoral program. However, the same lines did not speak of the national minorities living in Lithuania, but of the possible problems in the emigration of Lithuanian emigrants due to the promotion of their language, culture and customs, and they promised to solve them when they arrived in Lithuania. Energy.
When asked whether such a Labor Party proposal did not show that this opposition political force in the Seimas was trying to take the place of the Social Democrats, now often accused of collaborating with the ruling coalition, on the chessboard of the Parliamentary debate, Labor Party chairman Viktor Uspaskich Delfi said (Kačinskaitė – Urbonienė, aut. Past.), And she brought it, we discussed it in council (Labor Party – aut. Past.). Sure, there were all kinds of opinions, we said maybe it’s not time yet, but she demonstrated with arguments that maybe it’s time. “
“Everything is fine for me with the national minorities in Lithuania. I am Russian and I do not suffer any discrimination, I like and I like everything. Well, there are those who do not like it and who do not like it, and we do not have a law (regulating the status of national minorities, the law expired in 2010 – aut. Past), it is necessary to regulate it in some way, “said V. Uspaskich.
The bill on the preservation of multicultural identity, presented by three “workers”, establishes that a person can choose which national minority they want to belong to, as well as freely change that self-determination and choice at any time.
It is also proposed to resolve the issue of ensuring the spelling of place names and personal names in the mother tongue in Latin in official identity documents, guaranteeing the provision of educational services in the mother tongue, legalizing bilingualism in areas with at least 15 percent non-native population.
This proposal is of particular interest to conservative A. Ažubalis, as it is proposed to leave the right of municipalities to change the size of such regulated percentages.
“We will get a new Lugansk and new autonomies in Vilnius,” fear the conservatives of the Seimas.
The question of the presentation of the bill is expected to be considered on the agenda of the Seimas on Tuesday night.
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