Čmilytė-Nielsen: the “peasants” will have their representative on the board by delegating an opposition leader

After the Seimas on Tuesday rejected Aušrinė Norkienė, a candidate of the “peasants”, and appointed the Social Democrat Julius Sabatauskas as vice-presidents on the recommendation of V. Čmilytė-Nielsen, the largest faction of the opposition “peasants” has remained. so far without a representative on the Seimas board.

“And in the current situation, we can have a very good composition that represents the entire Seimas, especially if, as the main opposition faction plans, they will soon have an opposition leader who will also be on the board.” In this situation, it may be time to put an end to this sharpness and resistance, ”the president of Seimas told News Radio on Wednesday.

He recalled that during the last term, the opposition in parliament had not been able to agree on an opposition leader and wanted more fluid negotiations with the current opposition.

“I wish the opposition can unite to be the leader of the opposition,” he said.

In disagreement with the appointment of A. Norkienė as vice-presidents, the “peasants” proposed the candidacy of Jonas Jarutis on Tuesday, but V. Čmilytė-Nielsen did not present this candidate to the Seimas. Ramūnas Karbauskis, the leader of the Peasants, promised to petition the Constitutional Court to restrict the rights of a large faction.

V. Čmilytė-Nielsen says that the “peasants” for a long time showed “stubbornness and inflexibility” due to proposals to nominate another candidate from the faction to replace A. Norkienė, and J. Jarutis volunteered only at the last minute .

“I believe that no order has been violated, the nomination of a candidate for deputies is the prerogative of the Speaker of the Seimas after listening to the factions (…). Assessing this situation, the distraction of the peasants, I chose the candidate who, both in terms of competence and in terms of human qualities, is perfectly suited to this position. No, there is no revenge on my part and there cannot be, from the beginning I sought to have the most competent people on the Board of Seimas ”, he said.

The new Seimas has approved six vice-presidents of the Seimas: the conservative Paulius Saudargas, Radvilė Morkūnaitė and Jurgis Razmas, the representative of the Freedom Party Vytautas Mitalas, Andrius Mazuronis, a “hard worker”, and Julius Sabatauskas, a social democrat.

According to the Statute of the Seimas, the head of parliament cannot have more than seven deputies. However, the coalition partners have agreed that there will be six.

The Speaker of the Seimas, after consulting the factions, proposes the candidates for Vice Presidents in such a way that at least two representatives of the opposition of the Seimas are deputies.