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Alvija Černiauskaitė, Acting President of the Lithuanian Community in the UK, becomes President. He will receive from G. Nausėda the award for active promotion of Lithuania and close cooperation with his native Alytus.
Although the quarantine has ended, the Presidency does not admit journalists to the event. Therefore, the LNK journalists had to speak to the winners at the door.
“No matter where you are, it’s always good to come home, it’s good to do a good job,” said A. Černiauskaitė.
In total, G. Nausėda had to present the statuettes to the 7 winners from global Lithuania. However, almost half of them did not run for the Presidency and boycotted the event.
“In a democratic society, everyone is free to choose how to speak. Some protest, others sit on the couch pretending to be gentlemen and comment. And others go to speak face to face,” said A. Černiauskaitė.
When asked if he had anything to say to the head of the country, G. Nausėda, the laureate replied “I really do.”
The Presidency did not rule on the matter a few weeks ago, when the winners announced that they would not withdraw the awards. President G. Nausėda does not mention this during the ceremony.
“Now we can no longer imagine the Lithuanian state without thousands of Lithuanian ambassadors on the world’s continents. You, dear laureates, are first and foremost a sign of Lithuanian life for us and the whole world,” said the president at the event.
Laisvės TV with Andrius Tapinas, who organized the “Freedom Road”, was the first to leave the statuette at the hands of President G. Nausėda. After President Povilas Mačiulis’ adviser left, to thank the “Family March” protesters who gathered without permission, as well as the controversial actors.
“In a democracy, we have the right not to want to accept an award from cellophane hands, so to speak,” said A. Tapin, the initiator of the Path to Freedom.
Then the space research company NanoAvionics and Vilnius University (VU) iGEM young scientists also gave up. He said that the values do not match G. Nausėda.
Dr. Vincas Bartusevičius, a member of the Lithuanian community in Germany, is awarded for his merits in life after his death, and a statue is taken away by his wife. And other laureates say they choose to speak up.
“We are talking about tolerance, we need to listen to each other. For the first time, Lithuanian education was talked about and appreciated. This is a great celebration for us,” said laureate Elze Di Meglio.
Another stated that perhaps foreign Lithuanians are more faced with the phenomenon of parents being of the same sex.
“It’s important for us to talk about that as well. We choose to talk,” said another winner, Aurelia Orlova.
After the ceremony, the laureates sit down with the president, as the name implies, for a more open conversation in the chamber space.
Aušra Kukelkaitė, head of Global Lithuanian Leaders, said that human rights should be among other issues. This non-governmental organization also prepared a letter to the President, presenting some reflections for him and orally.
“We saw that there was a need for our network,” he explained.
The text was also signed by several foreign Lithuanian organizations. They ask the president to initiate a national agreement on LGBT, migrant and other human rights.
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