“Mindaugas Bastys’ participation in the ruling coalition is out of the question. I am urging Bastys to resign from the Seimas without delay,” the head of the government said on his Facebook wall on Wednesday morning.
Bastys is currently part of the non-attached group of MPs who have not joined the opposition or the ruling coalition. He has suspended his membership in the Social Democratic Party.
In Skvernelis’ words, the Constitution is the country’s most important law and the foundation of the rule-of-law, therefore, a person cannot continue to be a member of the parliament after breaching the Organic Law.
The prime minister pledged to initiate improvement of the impeachment procedure.
“It is a fully incomprehensible and shameful situation when the parliament’s vote denies findings of the Constitutional Court. This casts a shadow upon all parliamentarians. As a member of the Seimas, I will collect signatures and register amendments to the Constitution to stipulate that a ruling of the Constitutional Court is sufficient to remove an MP from parliament by way of impeachment. There is no need to hold an additional vote in the Seimas for this,” he added.
In a secret ballot on Tuesday, 72 of Lithuania’s 141 lawmakers voted in support or revoking Bastys’ mandate, while 21 were against and 24 abstained. Removal of a mandate requires at least 85 votes.
The Constitutional Court has ruled that the lawmaker grossly violated the Constitution and breached the oath by concealing his ties with Piotr Voyeiko, a former KGB agent.
Bastys denies having breached the Constitution, saying that he did not deliberately conceal anything and merely made a mistake in the security questionnaire.