Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė stays in LSDP pending talks with PM

Olympian and lawmaker Laura Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė will remain in the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party for now but says she will decide on her political future after talks with Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius and Education, Science and Sport Minister Raminta Popovienė, LRT reported.

Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė was removed as chair of the Seimas Commission on Youth and Sports Affairs. She said she discussed her future with Seimas Speaker Juozas Olekas on Wednesday and had decided to remain in the party, although the issue was not fully settled.

Olekas is expected to arrange a meeting with the prime minister and the minister.

“I am really waiting for this conversation. We will sit down, talk and then I will probably make certain decisions,” Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė told reporters at the Seimas on Thursday.

She said Olekas had not made any specific promises but had encouraged her to continue working in the field of sport.

“He said that we could continue working and do good things for sport. I have quite a lot of things noted down. The speaker wanted to see what the key issues were and what was important,” she said.

Lawmakers says she feels deceived

Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė expressed disappointment with Sinkevičius, saying the prime minister had previously asked her to remain as commission chair until autumn and discuss her and the party’s future later.

“But things happened as they did. I was removed from the chair’s position and, so to speak, I feel deceived,” she said.

She added that she no longer trusted the prime minister and feared that any promises made during the upcoming meeting might not be kept.

Despite this, Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė said she wanted to give Sinkevičius one more opportunity to talk.

“I want to have one more, perhaps final, sincere conversation and hear something that could resolve my doubts,” she said.

Asked about the prime minister’s conduct, she said other people may have influenced his decisions.

“People can be young and make mistakes. Sometimes they may be unable to make a firm decision or express their own opinion and may be influenced by others,” she said.

Social Democrat Algimantas Radvila replaced Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė as chair of the commission. Sinkevičius has said the changes were prompted by criticism of the commission’s pace of work and stalled legislation related to sport. He said the Education, Science and Sport Ministry had also raised concerns about the commission’s work.