Vilnius district council removes Gulbinowicz street renaming from agenda

Vilnius District Municipal Council again failed to consider renaming streets named after priest Henryk Gulbinowicz, removing the proposals from its agenda on Friday. LRT reported that the council voted 16 to 9 to take the items off the agenda, with two members abstaining.

Waldemar Urban, head of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania–Christian Families Alliance (LLRA-KŠS) faction, proposed removing the street-renaming items, along with several others. He said the proposals could be considered the following week. The council’s next meeting is scheduled for October 22.

The council had planned to revisit the proposals after two previous meetings did not take place because too few members attended. The entire LLRA-KŠS faction was absent from those meetings. The council considered the street names in February and April but rejected the proposed changes both times. The faction, which holds a majority on the council, has previously opposed renaming the streets.

During Friday’s meeting, Social Democrat Martynas Motuzas asked the LLRA-KŠS faction why it continued to delay the issue. Faction representative Tadeusz Andrzejewski replied that the matter was before a court, which would decide on the street renaming. He said the faction hoped the court would make the case file public so council members could review the facts before making a decision.

The municipality proposes renaming the street in Buivydžiai eldership to Buivydžiai Street and the street in Nemenčinė to Gabriel Jan Mincewicz Street. According to explanatory documents, the administration has resubmitted the proposals to follow good public administration practice and save administrative costs related to legal proceedings.

The proposals come as the Regional Administrative Court considers a case in which the government representative for Vilnius and Alytus counties, Gedmantė Eimontienė, is seeking to overturn earlier decisions concerning the names of the two streets.

Social Democrat Rūta Carik called the faction’s request to see the case file illogical. She said the file could not be made public because of victims’ privacy, and argued that the court had no authority to do so and had not received such a request.

Vilnius District Mayor Robertas Duchnevičius has said he feels a moral duty to bring the renaming proposals back to the council. He has also claimed that one faction receives instructions from Brussels on how to act, while some council members may have grown tired of the issue and could vote differently. Duchnevičius said court cases involving allegations of sexual crimes against children and the possession of child pornography had further intensified the debate.