“Claims taken out of context and earlier statements as well as assumptions published by journalists do not correspond to the real situation, nor the agreements between the coalition parties. This reflects a continued interest in compromising certain parties and rearranging the influence of political powers,” states an LSDP press release.
The Lithuanian Social Democrat Party is not considering a potential withdrawal from the coalition government and publicised musings of only reflect the opinions of individual LSDP branch heads.
“Various opinions have already been expressed in the party council meeting. Then the LSDP management members voted on participating in a coalition government with the Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Union, with the majority voting in favour. Thus no questions regarding the coalition are even brought up in the party right now and if single opinions are taken and contrasted with my statements or the party’s position, it simply reveals attempts to antagonise the social democrats and manipulate this in the public sphere,” LSDP Chairman Algirdas Butkevičius is quoted in the press release.
“I have already expressed my opinion on the coalition negotiations, but the state is not a sandbox and if we started working together with our coalition partners, we have to keep going and implement the government programme together. There are no talks of withdrawing. I also feel provoked by journalists with questions of cliques in the party. Prior to the coming party chairman elections it would appear such provocations will become more frequent. I can only say that we have the opportunity to choose and currently our branch is choosing between several potential candidates,” the head of the LSDP Akmenė branch Vitalijus Mitrofanovas explained.
The Lithuanian Social Democrat Party and Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Union coalition agreement was approved by a vote in an LSDP management meeting on November 4, 2016.
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