Opposition challenges costly government birth-rate plan
Thursday 10th September 2026 on 11:45 in
Lithuania
LRT reported that Lithuania’s opposition has questioned the governing majority’s plan to increase the birth rate, calling it expensive and warning that its measures may not be effective. Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas said improving the country’s demographic situation would require a comprehensive package of measures.
Victoria Čmilytė-Nielsen, leader of the Liberal Movement, described the plan as generous but said some of its measures were poorly targeted.
“I am pleased that the Social Democrats are continuing the family package I presented. But it seems to me that it is considerably more expensive and less effective,” Čmilytė-Nielsen told reporters in parliament.
She also criticised the plan for not including an Assisted Fertilisation Law that would allow single women and unmarried couples to have children. Čmilytė-Nielsen said estimates suggested such a change could lead to 500 additional births in Lithuania each year.
“One-off payments do not work. Some things sound good, but they do not increase the birth rate. Poland and Hungary have provided more than one example of financially intensive measures that were not effective,” she said.
Laurynas Kasčiūnas, leader of the Conservatives, also said the government’s proposed birth-rate measures were expensive.
“We have to ask where the money is going to come from. Today alone, servicing our state debt requires 1.1 billion euros,” Kasčiūnas said, adding that the costs would rise next year if fiscal discipline was not maintained.
Olekas said increasing the birth rate required a combination of measures rather than a single solution.
“I think this is not about individual measures but about a complex. There is no single golden or silver bullet that can solve everything,” he said.
The governing parties have prepared a family support package that Social Security and Labour Minister Inga Ruginienė is due to present later on Thursday. Implementing the plan will eventually require nearly 770 million euros, although not all of its nine measures would take full effect next year.