The constitutional expert warns: Nausėda has already cornered herself with her statements

Furthermore, as one of the founders of the Constitution, Professor Vytautas Sinkevičius from Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) says, when rejecting certain candidacies for ministerial posts, G. Nausėda must be based on constitutionally justified arguments. So far, V. Sinkevičius stated that he had not heard such justification.

The professor said he believed that with statements that not all the proposed ministers would be approved, G. Nausėda threw himself into the corner. According to him, if the president does not approve the candidates on the basis of the speeches delivered in public space, both Ingrida Šimonytė herself and the entire ruling majority of the Seimas will have the right to ask whether G. Nausėda is abusing his powers.

“15 days are counted from the entry into force of the presidential decree on the appointment of Šimonytė. As far as I know, the president signed the decree on November 25. And it was published on the same day. Thereafter, it takes 15 days. That is, until December 10. The entire government must be approved and the government’s program must be presented to the Seimas ”, the lawyer told Delfi.

V. Sinkevičius explains that it is necessary to fit into that 15-day period even if some applications are rejected and new ones are proposed.

“During that period, an agreement must be reached between the Government between the Prime Minister and the President and, most importantly, an agreement must be reached with the majority of the Seimas. Look, the mere fact that the Prime Minister and the President agreeing is not enough for the Government to begin to act, because the Government receives the authority to act only after the Seimas approves its program ”, emphasized the professor.

V. Sinkevičius explained that this means that the government must be composed of such ministers for the Seimas to approve the program.

“Because it can happen that, say, the president agrees with the prime minister, approves the template, but it is not suitable for the majority of the Seimas. The majority of the Seimas will not approve the program, the Government will not start to act, “explained V. Sinkevičius.

Asked what would happen if there was no room within the aforementioned 15-day period to approve the composition of the Government, the professor replied: “It doesn’t fit. The Constitution establishes 15 days, which means that all parties, the president, the prime minister and the majority, must act to integrate. The Constitution does not foresee the mismatch. “

The criticism of sediment is called power arguments.

G. Nausėda has already said that now all the candidates of I. Šimonytė will definitely not be approved.

“All I can say is that, to the maximum extent, I can already see that it will not be approved,” the head of state told reporters last week.

The presidency announced that it had doubts about two candidates: Dainius Kreivis, who was nominated for energy ministers, was criticized for possible conflicts of interest, and Kaspars Adomaitis, who was delegated to the transport ministers by the Freedom Party, for lack of of experience in national politics.

It is true that G. Nausėda also criticized others: Simon Kairis, the candidate of the Liberal Movement for the Minister of Culture, was noted for his weak long-term vision in the cultural sector and lack of experience in national politics, Evelina Dobrovolska

The presidency was also trapped by the reputation of Finance Minister candidate Gintarė Skaistė, and Agne Bilotaitė, who was a delegate to the Interior Minister, was criticized for being too profound in “all areas”.

Although after the meeting with the possible Minister of Health Arūnas Dulkis, whom G. Nausėda himself did not appoint as State Comptroller for the second term, the Presidency did not make any meaningful comments, behind the scenes.

However, according to V. Sinkevičius, G. Nausėda may reject candidacies when there are constitutionally substantiated arguments.

“I don’t think so far the arguments that he says are insufficient competencies without leadership experience are constitutionally sound arguments. These are arguments in favor of power. The Minister is a political office, the job of the President is not to let a person who is not fully prepared for the job. For example, you only have a high school education, you don’t understand anything at all. There are people who are in politics but basically zero. That such people should not be converted.

And when you say that a candidate has made a good impression but has no vision, what does that mean? The candidate must not have any vision and the candidate must implement the government’s program, not the President, ”said V. Sinkevičius.

The delay will come to Lithuania

According to the professor, the president is a significant figure in the formation of the government, but not the most important.

“The Constitutional Court made it clear 12 years ago, in 1998. On January 10, it said that the president was not free to choose either the prime minister or the ministerial candidates. The president must approve and approve a government that has the support of the majority of the Seimas. It must approve and appoint as ministers only those people who have the support of the majority of the Seimas.

And another sentence of the sentence of that Constitutional Court: The President cannot act in such a way that an effective Government is not formed that has the confidence of the Seimas within the time established in the Constitution ”, quoted V. Sinkevičius.

The professor stressed that before December 10. The government must form, prepare and present itself to the Seimas.

“From that day 10. another new calculation period begins. According to the Statute of the Seimas, this program must be approved no later than within 15 days, that is, no later than 25 days. The Seimas factions and committees have the right to consider the government program (Delfi) for 10 days.

Let’s say December 10. program in the Seimas, some factions are lengthening the time, they are considering 10, we already have December 20. And on December 23. The Constitutional Court ruling that the current Skvernel government has no powers will be announced in 2007, ”the professor warned, adding that time is under great pressure because Lithuania cannot stay without the government.

V. Sinkevičius pointed out that even if the I. Šimonyt gobierno government receives the authority to act on December 20, it will have practically no time to manage the budget bill.

“It just came to our knowledge then. In other words, it will be forced to live on the very poor budget project left by the previous government. This delay will affect Lithuania, it will respond to public opinion,” emphasized the interlocutor.

Nausda must approve the Government in full

V. Sinkevičius explained that there is no number of candidates that the President can reject, but stressed that G. Nausėda must approve the entire Government, it cannot be incomplete.

“The prime minister has already been appointed, which means that there are 14 more ministers. There can be no situation that is approved without several ministers. Why? Because the Government is made up of the Prime Minister and all the ministers. It is written in the Constitution, ”said V. Sinkevičius, explaining that the wording of the country’s main document that“ the President approves the Government ”means that the entire Government approves.

“Without several candidates, the government is approved only in special cases. For example, the 15-day deadline expired and on the last or penultimate day it became clear that the minister candidate was hiding some very important circumstances. Let’s say you ever contacted the special services of other states, you were convicted, you have citizenship of another state, “said the professor.

This situation, when the Government was approved in an incomplete composition, occurred in 2012. Then Dalia Grybauskaitė rejected the Labor Party candidates Loreta Graužinienė and Virginija Baltraitienė proposed by Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius. The main argument for this was belonging to a political force in respect of which a case of fraud and fraudulent accounting had been filed.

According to V. Sinkevičius, the argument that the candidates of such a political force are rejected can be considered constitutionally justified, because at that time a reasonable question may have arisen as to whether the Labor Party does not participate in unconstitutional activities. This time, A. Butkevičius’s team was approved without the ministers of Social Security and Labor and Education and Science.

“In such cases, the entire composition may not be approved. But implicit and visible disagreements are not grounds for approving the incomplete composition. The entire composition must be approved without exception. in the body“Explained the professor.

It can raise the question of whether Nausėda is abusing her powers.

According to V. Sinkevičius, speaking of the fact that not all ministers will be approved, G. Nausėda threw himself into a corner. The professor said he believed that I. Šimonytė along with the coalition partners were already looking for some new candidates and did not rule out the possibility that the public might still hear some other surnames.

When asked whether I. Šimonytė could refuse to nominate new candidates for certain positions, arguing that, in his opinion, this is a suitable person, V. Sinkevičius replied:

“Of course he can. Then the president has to take a very big risk. He will have to say clearly, in a reasoned way, why that candidate is not suitable. It is not enough to say that he has no experience, little competence, because all candidates of those who speak are educated, have experience, have excellent competence ”.

However, if the candidates were rejected on the basis of those arguments, according to lawyer I. Šimonytė or the ruling majority they could raise the question of whether G. Nausėda is performing his duties correctly.

“Then the prime minister or the ruling majority could question whether the president is abusing his powers or exercising them properly,” the professor said.