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Strange set
Dancers and singers will not be disappointed with the Seimas elections that will take place during the crisis caused by COVID-19. The parties quickly realized that, under such circumstances, the well-known physicians, economists, and social experts in the public sphere were best suited, because today they are the stars and the heroes, not the representatives of television programs.
Incidentally, a complete novelty of the elections: each party yearned to have a high-ranking military officer or at least one previously uniformed person in the reserve, says General Dr. Jonas Zemaitis, political scientist at the Lithuanian Military Academy, Professor Dr. Jūratė Novagrockienė.
For the first time, so many graduates are on party-led electoral lists. While on duty, their participation in politics was prohibited by law. Although the proposal to turn over the coronavirus emergency situation to the army or the National Defense Ministry was not accepted, in such turbulent times, people may want to see former commanders of uniformed structures in the Seimas.
So the Homeland Christian Democratic Union (TS-LKD) is offering the former Lithuanian commander Lt. Gen. Arvydas Pociai to the electorate, and the Social Democratic Labor Party is not far behind: another former commander of the Lithuanian armed forces, Lt. Gen. Valdas Tutkus, it’s on their electoral lists. The Social Democratic Party nominates the former Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Brigadier General Algis Vaičeliūnas for the Seimas, and the Union of Peasants and Greens (LVŽS) used a civilian expert in military and police affairs: the Vice Minister of National Defense, former Minister of the Interior Eimutis Misiūnas.
The Social Democratic Party will attend the elections with specialists in the most relevant areas today: Professor Saulius Čaplinskas, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and AIDS, professor sociologist, economist Romas Lazutka, psychologist Andrius Kaluginas, former head of the Klaipėda Republican Hospital Romaldas. Conservatives have their own medicine: They used the popular child psychiatrist Linas Slušnis.
Professor S.Čaplinskas, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and AIDS, received special attention due to the coronavirus.
Among the debutants of the Seimas elections there are many people who worked in state institutions and public figures. The conservative team includes Mindaugas Lingė, former adviser to President Dalia Grybauskaitė, Dalia Asanavičiūtė, president of the Lithuanian community in the United Kingdom, and Remigijus Baniulis, former head of the Social Democrats, Žimantas Pacevičius, former head of the Special Investigation Service and Audrius It has been announced that the Government Chancellor, Algirdas Stončaitis, intends to fulfill the mandate of a member of the Seimas of the LVŽS. Among the candidates of the Liberal Movement are Marius Gurskas, head of the Lithuanian image group of the Government Chancellery, and Raimundas Lopata, political scientist at the University of Vilnius. The Freedom Party, which is making its debut in the elections, is offering voters Artūras Žukauskas, the rector of Vilnius University, who has completed his term. Zenonas Vaigauskas, the former head of the Central Electoral Commission, who has been counting on “social workers” for many years, also expects the support of voters.
Z. Vaigauskas, the former head of the Central Electoral Commission, also wanted a mandate.
Show characters and a witch
The champions of various sports are already established in the Seimas, so this time the world cycling champion, Simona Krupeckaitė, who intends to compete with the Social Democrats, wants to compete for the parliamentary mandate. Giedrius Drukteinis, a participant, journalist and writer of television programs on all possible subjects, is going to the elections with this party.
The Freedom and Justice Party, or just three Musketeers, who have merged from various other political formations, has an exclusive member: Vilija Lobačiuvienė, the main witch of Lithuania. If she were nominated and chosen, she would become the first witch in the Seimas, at least without denying that she was. By the way, V. Lobačiuvienė has already appeared in both the Seimas elections and the municipal councils, but the spells did not help her win.
V.Lobačiuvienė is the title of the voter and the eldest witch of Lithuania.
The character of “Dviračio žinios” may reappear in the Seimas for a new term. That would not be any news, for the most part in 2008. The representatives of the entertainment world who came to the Seimas with the Feast of the Resurrection of Arūnas Valinskas were the characters of this political satire television program, the actors who embody them or both of them. This time, Kristijonas Bartoševičius, better known to many as Mėslita’s director, millionaire Poška, will take part in the Seimas elections with the conservatives. It is true that in real life K. Bartoševičius is not like his character: he is a public figure who graduated in economics, a teacher who helped conservative candidate Ingrida Šimonytė at the election headquarters.
The representatives of the entertainment world led by A. Valinskas were one of the seasons of political fashion.
Not only the television show, but also the 2008-2012 Antanas Nedzinskas, which was entertained in the Seimas room during the first term. Recognized as a monster singing old hits, at Seimas he became famous for his love of other antiquities. During the height of the global financial crisis, he introduced a bill so that people in Zaporozhye, Volga or Riedos over the age of 30 are recognized as historical and protected by law. By the way, he himself had five of those cars. But the Seimas member became more famous when he imitated his own wedding due to publicity in the heat of the municipal elections. Such falsehood was condemned even by his colleagues in the entertainment world.
Locomotives and aggregates
Among the political debutants of the entertainment workshop this time – units. “Interesting changes are taking place: in the past, so-called locomotives, which should stretch the party list, were dominated by entertainment, culture, and now by experts often seen in the public sphere, such as economist Romas Lazutka, physicians and specialists – now in the context of politics. Now voters want responsible politics “, – says political scientist J. Novagrockienė. He adds that another innovation is the attempt to update the lists, especially in single-member groups. For example, new faces have emerged in politics among Social Democratic candidates.
According to the political scientist, the parties are trying to cool off before the elections, and this is understandable. This is done for two main reasons. First, an attempt is made to find individuals who are not polluted by politics but who are known to the public, as they seem more attractive to voters, and that party emerges as an adherent to the vector of renewal.
And secondly, the smaller or newer parties are attracting these newcomers for a very trivial reason: they have a shortage of human resources and the electoral roll must be filled with something. Then the one who goes is accepted. Sometimes this also happens to older parties, for example the LVŽS did the same during the last Seimas elections.
Admittedly, it is a rare exception, but for example, Liberal Movement leader Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen stated that his party will not invite stars to this election, but will raise up trained leaders in party divisions.
Joining the party is in no rush
The appearance of nonpartisans on party electoral lists is valuable in attracting people who have not previously participated in politics. But there is still a relatively new political trend: many of them want to continue to maintain the party’s innocence. And as the LV®S list example showed this term, the reluctance of newcomers to join the party even after winning the tenure of a Seimas member often means that such debutants are just political migrants moving from one political force to another unscrupulous due to their ideological opposites. Therefore, although during the last Seimas elections, Ramūnas Karbauskis was proud that a third of his list are not party members, that proportion is hardly worth enjoying.
Admittedly, there are no supporters, but loyal to only one party: I. Šimonytė stated that he would not form his own party, nor would he go to the polls with any other party, only with TS-LKD.
The obvious answer is why the parties attract known public authorities in their field.
But what do professionals in their field do in politics? “The reasons may be different. These people are active in their activities, intellectuals, they are interested in trying new areas,” guesses J. Novagrockienė.
Here, the economist R.Lazutka, who has been constantly evaluating politicians’ decisions publicly for two decades, makes no secret of the fact that he has been invited to run more than once and by several parties. Now the changing Social Democratic Party has spoken to him. And the leader of the Social Democrats, Gintautas Paluckas, assures that the newcomers to the elections are not Christmas glitters: they are all professionals in their field, they have very specific tasks.
All political debutantes believe that future politicians will be more transparent and professional, and parties will use their knowledge and experience. And then it comes out the way it comes out. “Even the arrival of military soldiers to the Seimas. Their work experience, knowledge of security and defense can be helpful. But the parties themselves divide the roles, so the question of how much this experience will be used. Furthermore, when people start working in politics, routine … “- where the voice of the privileged authorities in their field disappears in politics, explains J. Novagrockienė.
A complete novelty of the election: Each party planned to have a high-ranking military man, or at least one previously uniformed person, in reserve.
Why did you need decorations?
Of course, the Seimas is a representation of society, its reflection, which is why people of different professions and experience are needed here. In the 1990s, singers, writers, lawyers, economists, and farmers met in parliament. But some, from the Sąjūdis demonstrations, others, from the cabinets of the committees of the Soviet Communist Party, because they were concentrated in the parties due to ideological convictions. For some, their politics became a profession. However, the parties have been significantly calcified because, unlike now, the good tone was to welcome new members not just before the elections, and newcomers in the top ten could not have expected much.
The situation began to change around the 2000s, when new political leaders Artūras Paulauskas and Viktor Uspaskich formed their own parties, which had to complete electoral lists, so that the political debutant, unlike the old parties, could become immediately a member of the Seimas or a minister. Then the old parties started hunting down popular faces from the world of entertainment, art and sports. This led to a political anomaly such as the appearance in Seimas in 2008 of a company of friends brought together by representatives of the entertainment world, the Resurrection Party of the Nation, Artūras Valinskas.
A fashionable season
No one denies that a representative of the entertainment world can become a good politician, but the history of the Seimas shows that people who engage in politics from other media become the characters in the show rather than the people who played them. in politicians. 2008-2012 During his tenure, parliament became a live filming site for television shows where there was no need for an actor: he filmed how Asta Baukutė introduces a speaker, a professor from Britain at an international conference in the Seimas and calls it “Kamau beibi”, adding that the theme is English and ready. At first, some, like some cultists on a television show, even bought business suits and tried to play serious politicians. Then, one by one, they began to moan that they couldn’t continue dancing and singing, because they paid much more for that than for sitting in the Seimas.
However, at the end of the period, it became clear that many in Seimas liked it very much. But voters did not like it. The representatives of the entertainment world were the cry of the political fashion of a season. Several electoral lists retain a single term in the politics of ornaments. If nothing memorable has been done, in the next elections that person is not fresh or polluted in politics, making it more difficult to repeat the debutante’s success.
Of the sixteen of A.Valinskas, who managed to disperse various factions, the only term left in the Seimas was Rokas Žilinskas, who was protected by the conservatives. Valinskas himself did not receive a mandate neither with the list of the Liberal and Central Party, nor in the uninominal constituency, where, by the way, the success was not accompanied by one of his competitors: the pentathlete, the Olympic medalist Edvinas Krungolc. Neither singer Ligitas Kernagis nor A. Nedzinskas, who became famous on the television show, were awarded mandates. The Central Election Commission did not register A. Baukutė as a candidate at all, because it did not collect the required thousand signatures from its supporters, even suspected of falsifying them.
The poor reputation of representatives of the entertainment world in Seimas may also have deterred voters from other similar celebrities. invading the Seimas. Only the representative of serious music, the opera singer Vytautas Juozapaitis, was lucky: although he did not win in the constituency of a single member, he entered the Seimas with the TS-LKD list. He is now completing his second term at Seimas.
Established in politics
The fashion of the representatives of the entertainment world in Seimas has been replaced by the fashion of athletes. Never before have there been so many titled athletes in the Seimas. Athletes are willing, goal-oriented, ambitious, but their careers in sports end early, so politics can be a great start. Conservative basketball legend Sergei Jovaiša completes his second term at Seimas. The Liberals even have two champions: the Olympic champion, the discus thrower Virgilijus Aleknas and the winner of the World Chess Olympics Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen. She is a representative of the world of sports who has made one of the best careers in politics, even becoming the party’s president. O 2012 Basketball coach Vydas Gedvilas, a representative of the Labor Party, was even elected President of the Seimas, although he did not hold the position for a year.
Athletes are also very active in the municipal and LVŽS elections in 2019. In the European elections, former basketball star Šarūnas Marčiulionis was even second on the list, although he was less interested in politics than in unidentified flying objects. However, after receiving a mandate from a European-level politician, the former basketball player realized he was resigning.
The era of professionals.
After the entertainment, world representatives and athletes were knocked out by political rookies, an hour of professionals in their field. Among other things, the LVŽS won the last elections by emphasizing that it offers new people in politics but professionals with experience in their fields. However, declaring and being a professional is not the same. Then, most of them started in silence throughout the period, without demonstrating the professionalism mentioned during the electoral campaign.
However, professionals working in state institutions, such as Saulius Skvernelis, a former commissioner general of police who won the Seimas mandate, or I. Šimonytė, a long-term employee of the Ministry of Finance who represented conservatives, even they became members of politics, they became politicians. However, experience in the civil service, economic or legal knowledge policy is easier to apply and valuable than, for example, the ability to dance.
While all the Pleiades of sports, the representatives of the entertainment world are still trying to win the elections, but not with much success. Here, if the voters hadn’t fired, the entire sports constellation would have gathered at the Seimas in 2012: the basketball players brothers Darjušas and Kšištofas Lavrinovičiai, Vitoldas Masalskis, Rimantas Kaukėnas, the sports dance champion Andrius Kandelis were candidates in the Popular Party list. But this party remained last in the elections, winning 0.25 percent. votes. However, a significant number of voters distinguish that what becomes a star on a track or stage does not necessarily become a star in politics.
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