PM sees no grounds to speak about early election

“All scenarios are possible, but what consequences will follow and what happens after that? I think that today there are no grounds to speak about an early election unless a moment comes when it becomes impossible to form a political majority and government. Then such an option is possible,” he said on LRT Radio.

Skvernelis commented on the results of a RAIT survey commissioned BNS that showed that 25 percent of people thought that the current government coalition should continue and 19 percent wanted an early election.

Gintautas Paluckas, the new LSDP leader, and the majority of the party’s branches that have already stated their position are in favor of withdrawing from the ruling coalition with the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LFGU), but the Social Democrats’ political group in the Seimas and their ministers want the party to stay in government.

Skvernelis is urging the Social Democrats to make up their minds before the start of the parliament’s fall session, saying that he is ready to seek alternative support. Ramūnas Karbauskis, the LFGU chairman, says that he expects the current coalition to remain intact.

The LFGU political group has 56 members in the 141-seat Seimas and the Homeland Union‘s group has 31 members. The Social Democrats have 19 seats in the parliament. The Liberal Movement has 14 lawmakers, the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Union of Christian Families has eight, and the Order and Justice has seven. There are also five non-attached parliamentarians.