“If I am to speak of the future, then I believe that in the next municipal elections, the Peasant and Greens Union, if it does well here at the Seimas level, at the cabinet level, in such a case we will most likely have more than half of the mayors in Lithuania and we will have a very sizeable representation in municipal councils, alfa.lt reported.
That is why I told our branches that we need renewal, we need a massive effort in strengthening the party structure because if it happens, and it will, I believe it means that we then have to have the mayors and council members who will do all they can within the limits of their authority,” Karbauskis said after a Wednesday LPGU meeting which discussed the Seimas election results.
Not abandoning business
The “Peasant” leader told journalists that during the party council meeting he accented that while working in parliament, private interests should “stay at home”.
“My interests are left at my home, when I come to Seimas, working as a member of Seimas, my interests are those of Lithuania. […] It is very important that every member of Seimas would feel responsibility for this and that there would never be questions regarding their connections or any sort of decisions made,” explained Karbauskis.
There are a number of farmers among the LPGU members of Seimas. The “Peasant” leader spoke on transparency and noted that these colleagues are unable to hand over their business to others, while there’s little justification for selling.
“There has never been a case where a farmer handed over (their business – alfa.lt), because there is no-one to hand over to. A farmer’s farm is based on the family. A farm is the only branch of business that an individual does not have to relinquish on becoming a member of Seimas.
What does handing over management mean? In terms of property it is a family farm. It is a wife and husband, so who do you hand it over to? Sell the farm? You can say that, if they wanted to sell, but there is no such requirement in any current legislation, that a farmer has to relinquish his farm on becoming a member of Seimas,” spoke Karbauskis.
According to him, in an effort to achieve complete transparency, soon information on every meeting of members of Seimas will be made public.
“Soon, when a normal secretariat materialises for us, you will know who I meet and who I talk to every day. And you will have this information for every member of Seimas. It will be written, when and what meeting is going on, if you want you can even come listen. Everything has to be transparent,” Karbauskis spoke of further plans.
Minister’s named next week?
Karbauskis notes that during the party council meeting it was decided that Seimas Speaker Viktoras Pranckietis who was elected with the “Peasants” will not be able to be a member of the LPGU council or management.
The “Peasants” formed a coalition government with the Social Democrats, giving them the ministries of foreign affairs, economy and justice, while the remaining 11 stay with the “Peasants”. The SocDems have announced that they are delegating Mindaugas Sinkevičius as Minister of Economy, Darius Petrošius as Minister of Justice and Linas Linkevičius as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile the Peasant Greens have yet to officially speak up about specific names. According to Karbauskis, this question will be decided by the party council, while PM candidate Saulius Skvernelis will announce the candidate’s names.
“The management will be elected based on demand. If the PM will be prepared to present all candidates next week, that’s what will happen,” stressed R. Karbauskis.
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