Those who incite president against govt are state destroyers – Landsbergis

VILNIUS - Those who incite President Gitanas Nauseda against the incumbent government are state destroyers, says Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania's first post-independence leader.

Speaking on Friday at a meeting of freedom defenders at the Seimas, he said that every elected government, whether people like it or not, represents the state, and therefore those who shout "Seimas out!" are also shouting against the state.

"Those who come and incite the president against the government are also subversives. Do they understand that? I don't know. Are they doing it out of stupidity, or in pursuit of their own projects, as we have seen lately, when they get to the top, despite not being elected, dear Mr. Jansonas, and start giving orders in the president's name. You better go back to your Respublika group," the former chair of the Supreme Council-Reconstitutent Seimas said.

Landsbergis was reacting to the recent criticism voiced by Frederkas Jansonas, a presidential advisor, for the Foreign Ministry, led by Landsbergis' grandson Gabrielius Landsbergis, over the existing procedure for appointing ambassadors and the alleged attempts of the "statesmen" clan to establish itself within the diplomatic service. 

The former chair of the Supreme Council-Reconstitutent Seimas also criticized other politicians and public figures who call for the dissolution of the Seimas as some opposition members have registered a draft resolution calling for an early general election.

On Friday, the Seimas is marking the January 13 events and paying respect to freedom defenders who died during the Soviet aggression in Vilnius on January 13, 1991.

On that day, 14 people were killed and around one thousand were injured when Soviet troops stormed the Vilnius TV Tower and the Radio and Television Committee building as the Soviets attempted to overthrow by military force the legitimate government of Lithuania after the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990.