Europe and election of the parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, October 2008
ENKey points: After eight years out of office, the conservative Homeland Union returned to government ousting the ruling Social Democrats, who had been in power as a minority cabinet since 2006. Populist parties either remained in opposition, as in the case of the Rolandas Paksas’ Order and Justice party, or left government, as in the case of to Viktor Uspaskikh’ s Labour party. Three government ministers suspected of mis-using public money, including EU funds, lost in their electoral districts. Apart from domestic issues, the problem of energy independence and need for a single European energy policy was also evident in the campaign. It was located within the broader context of debates on the Russian threat and the efficiency of European security policy. Legal restrictions on TV political campaigning appear to have been an important factor contributing to a dull election campaign. The same factor also appears to be important in explaining why only one new party appeared in Lithuanian politics before the election, although it actually had a very good result. This new party, Rising Nation, led by celebrity businessman Arunas Valinskas, secured the balance of power and was crucial to the process of forming a new government. Together with Conservatives-Christian Democrats and two liberal parties, it was to form ruling coalition with 80 members of parliament out of 141. This coalition appeared to be strong enough to make unpopular macro-economic decisions such as balancing the state budget through increasing VAT and excise taxes as recommended by the EU. A consultative referendum on whether to prolong the life of the unsafe Ignalina nuclear power station (in clear violation of the EU accession treaty) was organized without any clear political rationale and lost due to insufficiently high turnout.
