Bickering with one – join others

So, who the Seimas Speaker Viktoras Pranckietis representing while he is in the seat of the Seimas’ Chairperson, Vytautas Bruveris asks in lrytas.lt?

Who he is, actually, representing politically, not in the formal sense of “representing all of Seimas” that he unsuccessfully uses to cover up his desire to remain in office?

Many say that V. Pranckietis represents no one or more accurately – himself. Perhaps his family. Thus, there will be yet another unprecedented novelty – the head of parliament being no ones. And why be surprised? It’s not the first, nor is it the last novelty to come up this term.

However, in politics, just as in nature, the larger you are, the stronger you are – if you have rejected one group, you usually become another group’s.

Take how V. Pranckietis with 44 other MPs in tow proposed a constitutional amendment. Based on it, members of Seimas, cabinet and judges suspected by law enforcement of having perpetrated a semi-severe or severe crime would no longer have legal immunity, which the Seimas or president would strip by a ruling.

Political pop, that’s it. After all, the institute of politicians’ immunity, which grants them protection from potential political persecution by exploiting law enforcement is definitely necessary. Especially in our geographic area. The fact that the immunity institute has turned into a caricature as of late is not its own fault, but members of Seimas themselves, who turned it into a caricature. Thus, the real solution to the problem would be to not elect such figures to Seimas.

But in this case, what is most interesting is what sort of crowd stands behind constitutional amendment flag bearer V. Pranckietis. Namely the Conservatives, Liberals, a few “Farmer” rebels and (perhaps because of the smell) a few others from the ruling coalition. In other terms, the impression may emerge that the flag is borne by the opposition, but V. Pranckietis is trudging alongside.

Such could be an interesting reversal – having mocked this speaker since 2016, the opposition may stand to defend him from R. Karbauskis’ revenge and in V. Pranckietis’ figure would obtain a head of Seimas of their own.