Politicians should first of all show a personal example of solidarity before asking citizens for understanding, with regard to austerity measures, said President Dalia Grybauskaite. The president added that she would "gladly refuse half of the rest of her state salary," reports news agency ELTA. The president says that the country can hardly make its ends meet and that it would have to cut social expenditures as well, but this should not be done by causing conflict among social groups. Grybauskaite says that "If attempts to cut benefits are made, it will be necessary to address the people, and the measures should be applied to all social groups. In her opinion, savings' measures should be applied to everyone, but not equally. "The state must protect those who find it most difficult to make a living... I have proposed to introduce a minimum, and anyone earning and receiving more should show solidarity and share a slightly heavier burden," said Grybauskaite.
All benefits are to be reviewed in an attempt to fill in the gap of the State Social Insurance Fund's (SoDra) budget; the average reduction of the SoDra benefits could reach 5 percent to 10 percent, said Social Minister Donatas Jankauskas, reports news agency ELTA. "The situation of all social groups should be evaluated in an equally fair way; we would like to ask for some time to carry out our homework assignments and to publicize all decisions already in September. This is essentially a political decision concerning the amounts to be borrowed and to be saved by cutting benefits," said Jankauskas. Deputy Social Minister Audrone Mikalauskaite pointed out that social benefits must not be cut evenly, across-the-board, as it is necessary to protect the most vulnerable groups of society.
