Member of parliament says Budapest conference offered no draft laws useful to Lithuania

Karolis Neimantas, a member of the Lithuanian parliament’s “Nemuno aušros” faction, said he returned from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Budapest without draft legislation that could benefit Lithuania.

“I don’t think I brought anything back,” Neimantas told the ELTA news agency on Monday. “Lithuania, I would say, still holds centrist views. We have some liberal leanings, but we also support national values. In this case I certainly didn’t bring back anything that could serve as a basis for useful draft laws for Lithuania—more like acquaintances, understanding of how other countries operate, how they campaign during elections, what issues each side focuses on and how they try to influence voters.”

The annual CPAC event in Budapest is known for promoting national sovereignty, opposing mass migration and criticising the European Union’s federalist ambitions. According to Neimantas, the conference emphasised national values and argued that EU law-making should remain a matter for individual member states.

“It’s a conservative event that favours national values, supports people living in their own countries, and insists that the EU is primarily an economic union rather than a federal one,” he said. “It opposes, for example, all forms of gender ideology, gender reassignment and mass migration, while supporting freedom of speech, freedom of work and so on. It’s the opposite of the extreme right-liberal agenda.”

The Lithuanian parliament’s governing board sent Neimantas and fellow “Nemuno aušros” deputy Dainoras Bradauskas to CPAC last Wednesday. Media reports had previously described the conference as critical of EU policy on Ukraine, globalisation and migration, with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán expected to seek re-election.