Mocked Seimas members after public ownership declarations: they seem to live in barns and firewood

“The figures given by politicians in their asset declarations are very much in line with reality. Politicians generally try to reduce the value of the assets they own. But because politicians have an obligation to declare income and assets , they say “okay,” Sarafin said on Delphi Day.

“Whether we are talking about money or real estate, they declare everything nominally, so they are formally right, they do not lie, but if we judge by market value, it seems that many of our politicians live in barns, firewood by value.” Although he actually lives in Vilnius and Kaunas ”, he explains.

The differences are huge

According to Sarafin, politicians often cite the value for which they bought real estate, so they formally appear to be right, but now the situation has changed considerably. “We ask auditors or real estate appraisers to evaluate the assets of politicians. It turns out that zero or even two zeros must be added to that nominal value. “

There are many cases where politicians point to insignificant values ​​and then it turns out that they have much greater wealth, according to Sarafin.

“He just came to our attention then. He himself, under the impression, did not know for a long time that he was wealthy. But when journalists asked, they suddenly realized that they had much more than what they declared in 2018. When he is among the five richest members of the Seimas, “recalls the head of” Reitingai “magazine. editor.

“Something similar happened with Ramūnas Karbauskis. He himself declares that his assets are 24.5 million. The auditors say that the shares of the group he owns are worth 80 million euros. These differences are enormous,” says Sarafin.

Voters don’t care about wealth?

Political scientist Jūratė Novagrockienė says this information will not have a significant impact on the results of the Seimas elections.

“Perhaps a part of the electorate, perhaps living in poverty, can say: what kind of wealth controls us, but for the most part, I think it is natural: people have won, they have businesses, one activity or another, and finally, family wealth is created by inheritance, it depends on parents, grandparents, etc. The main question is whether it was acquired legally, and if not, then there should be problems, “says the political scientist.

According to associate professor Mažvydas Jastramskis of the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science (VU TSPMI), we can see from examples from previous elections that voters also support very wealthy candidates.

“There are people who are rich, like Uspaskich or Karbauskis, and that does not prevent people from voting for them. The question here is how people see themselves, how there is enrichment, can make a difference.

“It just came to our attention then. And you knew in the past what the situation was there. In the last Seimas elections, Ramūnas Karbauskis himself was much higher in his party. Did that prevent him from winning the elections? Far from it “adds the political scientist.

According to him, some voters may see the policy of managing great wealth in a positive way: “People can see a rich policy in a different way: that the person has already earned, they can spend more time and they will be fairer. There are different evaluations and we cannot say that the average Lithuanian thinks positively or negatively. “

The political scientist explains that, in general, the reasons for voters to vote in Lithuania are several. “There are people who will never vote for the conservatives, part of the population will look for a liberal party, part will be affected by the pandemic, economic trends will be important.” Part will be who will vote for something new, for anything. There are many reasons “, – M. Jastramskis says in the program” Delfi diena “.