Nausėda calls for “new political culture”, less confrontation

“Less than 100 days are left to the presidential election, which means that the temperature of political life will increase. Within this period, we all face an important task of not allowing confrontation and remembering how we lived successfully when we were able to agree with each other,” Nausėda was quoted as saying in a statement released by his team.

The candidate introduced his slogan for the upcoming election — “All energy for the sake of Lithuania”. Algė Budrytė, an economist and longtime worker of the country’s financial sector, will lead Nausėda’s presidential campaign.

“I will devote all my energy myself and as an independent candidate I will call all Lithuanian sides to negotiate and will encourage others to devote their energy for Lithuania,” Nausėda, former Lithuania’s SEB bank economist, underlined.

He indirectly named the country’s prime minister Saulius Skvernelis and conservatives’ candidate Ingrida Šimonytė his main rivals in the election this May.

“As the ratings show, there are two main rivals in the upcoming election. According to the opinion polls, I will have quite a fair possibility to surpass both of them,” the candidate told reporters.

According to the latest poll conducted by public opinion company Spinter Tyrimai and published by news website Delfi, Nausėda remains the leading presidential candidate as 26.7 percent of the respondents would like to see him as the next president of Lithuania. MP Ingrida Šimonytė is second with 19 percent voter support. Prime Minister Skvernelis is third with 16.5 percent.

The president election of Lithuania will be held on May 12, 2019 with the second round to be held on May 26 if necessary.