In the last debates before the first round of the Seimas elections, I.Šimonytė’s promise to S.Svvernelis: we will not investigate

Gintautas Paluckas, chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, Vigilijus Jukna, leader of the Labor Party candidate list, and Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, chairman of the Liberal Movement, also participate in the debate.

What did COVID-19 reveal about the Lithuanian health system and government?

V. Čmilytė-Nielsen said that the coronavirus revealed the fact that large hospitals are too big and small ones are too small.

S. Skvernel assured that COVID-19 showed that society and government can come together. According to him, the flaws were seen and shown before, but no decisions were made.

“In some regions, the health system itself is seriously ill,” the prime minister said. According to him, it may be necessary to close some district hospitals.

“The problem was that he came with his reform and gave two weeks to discuss in the Seimas,” said I. Šimonytė. According to her, COVID-19 showed that decisions could be made very quickly, but then it was difficult to get out of them. Furthermore, most importantly, the pandemic has shown that it is very difficult for a “homogeneous government” to admit that it knows nothing.

S. Skvernelis assured that there were more women in this Government than in the Government of Andrius Kubilius.

“It has been revealed that the healthcare system in Lithuania is at a very different level,” said G. Paluckas.

A Labor spokesman said the most important thing the pandemic revealed was that hospitals were not supervised.

V.Čmilytė claimed that the pandemic showed how distrustful Lithuania is of the private sector.

In the debate, I. Šimonytė promised that the next Seimas would not investigate the government’s activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Let the police do it,” he added, assuring him that for the past four years, the government has been characterized by undermining democracy.

G. Paluckas assured that he would very much like to see conversations between “peasants” and conservatives for another four years. However, it especially regrets that the six promised reforms have not been implemented.

The representative of the Labor Party, V. Yukna, also spoke of the many prohibitions and disagreements that characterized the “peasant” government.

“The public debt has risen again drastically,” he lamented.

What are the biggest threats to Lithuania?

V.Čmilytė-Nielsen said that, first of all, the Astrava nuclear power plant and the unstable and undemocratic Belarus.

S. Skvernel agreed that the question of Belarus will remain very important, it is necessary to concentrate here and avoid the creation of additional security structures, such as the EU army. He also suggested not forgetting China.

“Terrorism has not disappeared,” he said.

I.Šimonytė was glad that S.Svvernelis changed his mind about Belarus and China in a year and a half. He said the biggest threat was the decline of US leadership in the region.

“It is very important how these dynamics move after the US presidential elections,” he said. There is also the threat, according to the conservative, of a desire to befriend undemocratic states in one of the parties in the current ruling coalition.

S. Skvernelis said that no one can be called Vatnik and rejected, even if they think differently about Russia, because they are Lithuanian citizens.

“They are even more patriotic than yelling ‘shame’ here,” said the peasant representative.

I. Šimonytė claimed that the Prime Minister had improperly shaken national minorities and their coalition partners.

“You look at the comments,” Skvernel urged, admitting he had time to read them. In addition, he compared the announcement of the conservative Justas Džiugelis in the Vilnius district, where the words “Šalin Tomaševskis” are heard with the Nazi call signs.

G. Paluckas assured that the threat is also social exclusion, which is here, not imagined. Mr. Jukna emphasized the importance of cyber security.

What is the most important job for the new Seimas?

V.Čmilytė-Nielsen stated that this guarantees a quality education for all. Mr. Jukna spoke about reducing poverty and increasing wages.

G.Paluckas assured that the most important work will be the implementation of the promises broken by the Seimas of this legislature. S. Skvernelis spoke about ensuring economic growth.

According to I. Šimonytė, the main task is to restore people’s trust in government and defend democracy.

National agreement on education: necessary or not?

Representatives of all parties agreed that a national agreement on education was needed, but the presidents of the Social Democrats and the Liberal Movement argued that it was important to agree on money as well, and S. Skvernel said that the biggest mistake was deciding on GDP for education. – teacher or student.

I. Šimonytė also followed this opinion. He assured that the most important thing was to agree on what quality education is and how to ensure it for each child.

Yukna said that the national agreement should be crafted by academics, not politicians.

I. Šimonytė assured that immediately after the elections it was time to sign the agreement to implement it. S. Skvernelis agreed with that. According to him, the aim of the agreement should be to avoid different levels of schools.

I. Šimonytė stated that joint classes are not good, because although a child receives education close, he does not receive the knowledge that he should receive. He agreed that the educational agreement could specify how many kilometers children can be transported to school.

V.Čmilytė-Nielsen agreed with that. According to her, joint classes really don’t have to stay.

S. Skvernel explained that the national agreement must decide whether the founders of the schools should remain the municipalities, and perhaps they should be assumed at least temporarily by the central government.

“I am in favor of doing the experiment in municipalities that agree,” he said.

G. Paluckas argued that school administrations should be scaled down and moved to larger school branches.

How to promote sustainable economic growth?

According to S. Skvernel, it is necessary to increase labor productivity, and companies must invest in new technologies, return China’s production to Europe.

I.Šimonytė argued that in addition to labor productivity and investment in technology, it is necessary to increase foreign investment. G. Paluckas stated that Lithuanian companies can hardly start exporting, so it is necessary to unite nine business support institutions into one and provide assistance.

V.Čmilytė-Nielsen stated that it is necessary to start from the fact that the borrowed money is not overfished and the DNA plan is aimed at digitization.

A Labor spokesman explained the need to attract talent and ensure the stability of the tax system to attract more investors.

S. Skvernelis assured that investors do not ask anything about the tax system, infrastructure is important to them, if they will not have to pay bribes or if there will be labor.

I.Šimonytė responded that stability is still important to investors, but it is also important to decide where the country’s priorities are. “In the long run, the answer is not even in college, but in school,” he said.

How to improve public administration?

A Homeland Union spokeswoman emphasized the need to understand that cheap government is costly and to fundamentally reform the civil service.

S. Skvernelis assured that this debate should not be a report of his Government, but that it is after the transformations carried out by this Government that more candidates will be opened for competitions.

V. Jukna categorically did not agree that the public sector is working fast and well enough. I. Šimonytė also stated that the example of the National Center for Public Health, where there are shortages of personnel and low salaries, shows how bad the reorganized civil service of this Government is.

S. Skvernelis argued that state-owned companies should strive not only for profit, but also to provide a social service. Here, G. Paluckas supported the Prime Minister and mentioned the company “Ignitis”.

After an hour of debate, S. Skvernelis began to protest when he heard the question about recycling garbage. He said his government’s mistake was that garbage was not classified enough in Lithuania, and garbage incinerators, tire recycling companies were handed over, which caught fire.

V.Jukna said it is important to educate people on how to sort and reject plastic.

The political debate was moderated by the journalist Edmundas Jakilaitis, and the debate was organized at the initiative of the Public Institution “Primer Café”.

The Seimas elections will be held on October 11.