Coalition wrangling finally draws to an end

Nov 01, 2004
By Milda Seputyte

VILNIUS - It was probably a little bit too unrealistic to be true, given the nature of Lithuanian politics. As the idea of a rainbow coalition slowly faded, representatives from the ruling Social Democratic and Social Liberal coalition shook hands with Labor Party leader Viktor Uspaskikh as the factions came close to cobbling together a coalition in the Seimas (Lithuania's parliament) and the Cabinet of Ministers.

It only took 24 hours for the talks about the need to form a rainbow coalition to run out of steam. The Social Democrats, the Social Liberals, the Liberal Centrists and the Conservatives failed to find enough common ground in their negotiations to create the much talked about rainbow coalition.

One of the major stumbling blocks was that the conservative Homeland Union could not find ground for compromise with the leftists who were asking for the portfolio of prime minister and several other ministerial posts. The conservatives were reluctant from the outset to negotiate with the leftists, who were holding talks on two fronts. The Labor Party then entered talks with the Social Democrats, who ignored protests from the Homeland Union.

On hearing the news, conservative leaders angrily stated that their previous talks with the leftists were rendered null and void, and both the Conservatives and the Liberal and Center Union immediately started threatening to withdraw to the opposition.

"Once the negotiations with the Labor Party began, the Social Democrats and the Social Liberals demonstrably showed that they - unlike us - do not see the need to keep Victor Uspaskikh's Labor Party away from power," leader of the Homeland Union Andrius Kubilius said.

As left and right turned their backs on each other, representatives from the Liberal and Center Union blamed the Social Democrats and the Conservatives for allowing the negotiations over the coalition to deteriorate into acrimony and insult.

"First, the Homeland Union did not manage to step out of its party's pants and leave its ambitions aside. Second, the Social Democrats were running back and forth and imitating negotiations rather than actually trying to seek an agreement for real. Now we can see that its true partner is the Labor party," said Liberal Centrist Eligijus Masiulis.

The Liberal Centrists went on to say that the decision of the Social Democrats to co-operate with the Labor Party was a betrayal of the electorate.

But Social Democrat and Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas did not try to deny his pre-election promises not to form a ruling coalition with the Labor Party.

"I don't deny this. Yet I hoped that the thinking of the conservatives would be more accommodating," Brazauskas said. "Before the Seimas election and right after it, I was optimistic about the Conservatives and especially about the Liberal Centrists. I was hoping that we would surely manage to model a rainbow coalition. However, these expectation faded very rapidly."

After the Conservatives suspended coalition negotiations for an indefinite period of time, Brazauskas said he did not see any other option except to look for allies in the Labor Party and the Union of the Farmers Party and New Democracy Party.

The leftwing block of the three coalition partners could hold up to 84 out of 141 seats in the country's parliament.

As The Baltic Times went to press, the final make up of the cabinet of ministers was still being agreed upon. Coalition partners have so far agreed that the Social Democratic and Social Liberal block would keep the portfolios of seven ministries, along with the position of prime minister, which Brazauskas would keep.

Two other coalition partners were still bargaining over the remaining six ministries. The Labor Party wants to head five ministries regulating internal politics - the ministries of finance, transport, health, justice and culture.

"We are grateful to the Social Democrats and Social Liberals that they entrusted us with internal affairs," said Uspaskikh. "We are not being conciliatory but we accept the situation the way it is. Since the electorate gave us only half of the majority, we will have to accomplish fewer promises than we made in our manifesto."

forgot password?