Gintautas Paluckas, the party’s leader, told the party council meeting there’s only one important issue when discussing the convention, and that is the prevention of violence against women and other person or not.
“It’s the principle of world-view as often a conservative and inert minority monopolizes the right to decide on behalf of the society. (…) the Istanbul Convention does not pose any threat,” Paluckas said.
Meanwhile his deputy MEP Vilija Blinkevičiūtė says Lithuania looks strange, to say the least, procrastinating the ratification of his convention.
“It’s a shame that Lithuania is dragging this process. We often compare ourselves to Estonia, but the Estonian already ratified the Istanbul Convention during the EU presidency. Who are we matching? Bulgaria, Russia, Azerbaijan who have not even signed the Convention? Violence cannot be justified in any way,” she said.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius signed the Convention in 2013 and the Seimas has not ratified it so far. The Convention is causing major debates in Lithuania due to the concept of “gender” and its Lithuanian translation, approved by the government chancellery, as “social gender”.