Is it the fall or rebirth of Lithuania’s Freedom Party?

  • 2025-01-21
  • Marius Matijosaitis, Member of Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) in 2020-2024, one of the founders of Freedom Party

I have been asked to give my thoughts on why the Laisvės partija (Freedom Party) did not get elected once again to the Parliament of Lithuania, the Seimas. 

As one of the founders of this political organization – we were established in 2019, I start by declaring that I am not a political observer, though I am educated in political science. So what is the science of failure at the 2024 Seimas election?

According to surveys, the liberal Freedom Party shares a significantly large portion of the same electorate as the biggest coalition partner from 2020 to 2024—the Conservatives (Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats). Both parties understand this and therefore compete. Rarely seen in established democracies in the West, here in Lithuania, conservatives share the political spectrum and fight with liberals for more or less the same electorate. Their information bubbles in classic media and social media usually overlap as well. 

Therefore, the urban, high-earning, educated, center-right voter claims to have only three choices: the conservative party, the Liberal Movement, or the Freedom Party. The aforementioned was the smallest coalition partner with a very clear agenda, a huge long-term program, and innovative ambition. However, it is a party whose principles have been continuously undermined by Seimas power games and political manipulation by the big brother, the conservatives. To visualize, 10 MPs and 3 ministers all along worked and competed against 50 MPs and 9 ministers plus the Prime Minister. 

Frankly, the Freedom Party needed to quit the coalition at the right time if it was merely thinking about its structure and the future of the political organization. However, it stayed because of the pandemic, illegal migrants, and especially Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with all its implications, suggested a different and more sophisticated kind of approach—the urgency to continue working for the people and the state to ensure stability.

Secondly, the Freedom Party lacked only around 6,000 votes to go above the needed 5%. This basically means if Laisves had around 6-9 extra candidates in one or another constituency, they would have passed. Attracting more candidates has somewhat been a problem. One more aspect. The party’s marketing for the last five years has been labeled as the most youthful. Everything from the fonts, colors, topics, the style of communication, and the way the Freedom candidates and politicians were open and approachable on social media was user-friendly for the youth to get engaged. 

Along with other topics, Freedom is the only party so vividly fighting for the LGBTIQ+ community, animal rights, and, in general, equality, environmental policies, and other niche topics that are usually appealing to the youth. However, during the 2024 Seimas election, youth participation was only at 35.69% among the age group of 18–29 years old. And this was drastically low. 

Thirdly, I would easily claim that the role of two major commercial television stations continuously mocking the Freedom Party for one reason or another has had an impact. We have seen footage, montages and made-up stories that were more and more downgrading regarding its style of approach. 

Finally, the elections in Lithuania are always amusing in a way because a few things never change. We always want someone other than those who are in government. We are always attracted by new parties. We elect those who are shown on TV and the internet the most. I will leave you with this thought, as I have mentioned exactly three reasons deliberately.