Brazauskas knocks on Paksas' door

Jun 14, 2001
Rokas M. Tracevskis

The current coalition government is a hybrid of the center-right Liberals of Paksas and the center-left Social Liberals of Parliamentary Chairman Arturas Paulauskas. The marriage between these two parties, which have quite different ideological standpoints, was organized and blessed by Adamkus after parliamentary elections last fall.

On June 1 in an interview broadcast on Lithuanian public television, Adamkus said he would welcome a broader coalition, which would include the Liberals, the Social Liberals and the large opposition Social Democrats.

Brazauskas made his first clear statement about a possible change of government on June 5, after meeting with his ideological protégé on the left, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. Brazauskas told Polish TV that the current Lithuanian government would resign "after several months."

Tensions in the ruling coalition are a public secret. In public, Paksas says that the Paulauskas-led Parliament could pass laws necessary for reforms a little quicker, while Paulauskas complains that the government could prepare laws, which it proposes to Parliament, more carefully.

But it is all just a performance for the naive electorate, say political observers. The real secret tensions have arisen because of the coming privatization in the Lithuanian gas and energy sectors, many believe.

Antanas Bosas, leader of the Social Liberals in Klaipeda, and Viktor Uspaskich, one of the leading figures in the parliamentary Social Liberal faction, are businessmen. Their firms made millions cooperating with Russia's Gazprom and importing Russian gas.

Rimvydas Valatka, a columnist with the daily newspaper Lietuvos Rytas, writes that these Social Liberals find better common language with the Social Democrats than the Liberals.

Political observers speculate that Adamkus' statement might be a sign that he wants to campaign for a second term. Brazauskas has said many times that he wants the post of prime minister more than that of president. Adamkus could avoid competition with the popular Brazauskas in presidential elections if the leftist leader became prime minister.

"We can create a coalition government with similar, social-oriented parties - part of the Social Liberals, as well as with the Christian Democrats, the New Democracy (former Women's Party) and the Peasants Party," Social Democrat MP Juozas Oleka said.

In an interview with Lietuvos Rytas, published on June 9, Brazaus-kas said openly that he would like to create a coalition of the Social Democrats and the Social Liberals.

Meanwhile, the Social Liberal leader Paulauskas is reluctant to agree with Brazauskas and Adamkus. "It is the business only of the partners of the ruling coalition," Paulauskas said at a press conference June 6, speaking about suggestions to change the government. "The president's influence is not so great on this issue."

Paksas is maintaining the same line.

"I have constantly heard talk about the quick collapse of our government since it's establishment seven months ago. I pay no attention to all these speculations," he said.

"While the coalition is alive, and it is alive, questions about its death are premature," Kestutis Glaveckas, leader of the Center Union, one of the small partners of the ruling coalition, said on June 11.

Paksas said after the meeting of June 11 that the coalition partners had agreed to form working groups that include each party's representatives to hammer out a common position on tax and pension reform, the return of land nationalized under the Soviet occupation, the fate of the Mazeikiu Nafta oil refinery and the privatization of Lietuvos Dujos (Lithuanian Gas), the Lithuanian natural gas monopoly.

On June 12, Paksas and Adamkus met to discuss the ruling coalition's work. "The president said that the best way to stop all this talk about collapse of the government is good work," Violeta Gaizauskaite, president's spokeswoman, said after the meeting.

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