VILNIUS - There was no drama during the election of a new speaker of the Lithuanian parliament 's the result was quite predictable. On Sept. 17, Irena Degutiene, 60, became the first woman in Lithuania's history to be installed as chairperson of the Lithuanian parliament after her candidacy was approved in a secret ballot.
She attracted the support of 87 MPs, while 48 MPs voted against her candidacy. Degutiene, MP of the biggest parliamentary faction, the Homeland Union 's Lithuanian Christian Democrats, is a well-known politician. In May, 1999, and in October-November, 1999, when the ruling center-right had a couple of government crises, she was the temporary prime minister. Her candidacy did not raise controversy. She was praised by both the ruling center-right coalition and the opposition. The latter did not propose an alternative candidate during this election.
"She is tolerant and polite. She is tolerant to the opinion of others and does not mix the opinion of others with the personality of that person. We have nothing against Irena, but we are the opposition and we are concerned about a concentration of power in the hands of one party. It is why we'll vote against," Algirdas Butkevicius, leader of the opposition Social Democrat Party, said in the parliament before the secret ballot procedure.
Viktor Uspaskich, member of the European Parliament and controversial leader of the Labor Party, sent a letter from Brussels urging his party's 10 MPs to support Degutiene's candidacy, in the name of stability in the country.
A majority of MPs, speaking before the vote, expressed their happiness about the fact that the new chairperson will be a woman, and praised female power. "It is a pity that women were not allowed to play, instead of men, in the recent [highly unsuccessful for the Lithuanian team] European basketball championship," Degutiene said during pre-vote debates, reacting to all those nice words.
Only Julius Veselka, MP of the Order and Justice Party faction, was unhappy by this dithyramb tone. "It looks as if God came down in the shape of Degutiene," he said.
For almost 20 years, Degutiene worked in the Vilnius Red Cross Hospital, before becoming deputy minister in the Health Care Ministry in 1994. Since 1996, she has been a center-right MP. Degutiene is married to a doctor, with two children.
