The newly-created party will keep the title of the Social Democratic Party. With 15,000 members it is Lithuania's biggest political party. Former President Algirdas Brazauskas, 68, was elected as the party's chairman while Andriukaitis and Jursenas became his first deputies.
Only one congress delegate of 960 voted against Brazauskas' candidacy and three abstained. The rest decided that the party would have a better future if led by Brazauskas, the most popular politician in Lithuania, according to the latest surveys.
Brazauskas is a charismatic leader. He was elected head of the Lithuanian Communist Party in 1988. The following year his party split from the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R.
Brazauskas' party supported Lithuania's independence and embraced Western social democracy, instead of communism. On March 11, 1990 Brazauskas, an MP at the time, voted together with the rest of the Lithuanian Parliament to re-establish the country's independence. The Lithuanian Communist Party changed its name to the Democratic Labor Party.
Between 1993 and 1997, Brazauskas was Lithuania's president. He has been a non-party man since 1993.
The history of the Social Democratic Party led by Andriukaitis, a Soviet-era dissident, is different. Its history starts at the end of 19th century when it was Lithuania's most radical pro-independence party while right-wingers still spoke only about "autonomy inside Russia." The Social Democratic Party was re-established in 1989.
Brazauskas emphasized in his speech to the congress that most European Union countries have chosen leftist governments and that Lithuania should be no exception. Representatives of many foreign social democratic parties were present at the congress.
Despite shifting to the right in recent years, British Labor Party leader and Prime Minister Tony Blair sent his personal congratulation.
The party leaders were optimistic about their political wedding.
"It will take three months to finish the merger down to the lowest level of the local organization of the two former parties," Jursenas said.
"Our electorate is already united. It consists of some 500,000 people," added Andriukaitis.
Andriukaitis told The Baltic Times that the new leftist party had not yet decided on a candidate for the 2002 presidential election.
"It is too early to speak about it. Maybe Brazauskas will prefer to become prime minister. Maybe I will run for the presidency, maybe somebody else," Andriukaitis said.
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