Lithuania Parliament supports Butkevicius in PM’s post

  • 2012-11-22

VILNIUS - Lithuanian Parliament has approved of Social Democrat leader Algirdas Butkevicius' candidacy to the prime minister's post, as he was nominated by President Dalia Grybauskaite.

His candidacy Thursday was supported by 90 votes in favor, 40 MPs were against with 4 abstentions.

Butkevicius has promised to work for the sake of a better future of Lithuania, especially of people with low income.

"As a person I do not want to refer to the past, I only have to think about Lithuania's future () I can see Lithuania taking two roads: the road of the elite and the road of ordinary people who are now forgotten. One should go to rural areas, village libraries, village culture centers where people work for 400 litas (116 euros) a month," said the candidate to the prime minister's post.

During the pre-voting discussion, the Social Democrat leader was most of all criticized by the political groups of the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) and the Liberals' Union, meanwhile, representatives of the ruling majority did not spare compliments to Butkevicius and expressed their support to him.