Andriukaitis urges Social Democrats to rebuild trust after crises

Social Democrats must recover from a series of political crises and win back voters’ trust, party honorary chairman and European Parliament member Vytenis Andriukaitis said, according to LRT. He also said Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius should show stronger leadership.

Andriukaitis described the latest parliamentary term as a period of three crises. The first followed the party’s failure to honour its promise that Vilija Blinkevičiūtė would become prime minister. The party then faced a crisis over Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas, who left office, followed by difficulties after Inga Ruginienė replaced him.

Andriukaitis said the party was gradually recovering, but needed to take a more prominent role in delivering its programme. “The limit for mistakes has been exhausted,” he said, urging the party’s parliamentary group and government members to take the initiative and restore voters’ confidence.

Andriukaitis calls for stronger leadership from the prime minister

Andriukaitis said Sinkevičius’s government had taken office in difficult circumstances, with security threats rising and the country facing decisions on increased defence spending. He described the proposed state budget for next year as balanced given the country’s current means, despite debate and doubts about it.

He said the government had to find ways to maintain funding for health care, education, pensions and public services as defence spending rose. However, he questioned whether defence spending needed to reach 5% of gross domestic product, saying it could instead have risen gradually from 4%.

In his view, the rapid increase in defence spending was adding to state debt and making it harder to meet the Social Democrats’ election pledges, particularly on public welfare, pensioners’ quality of life and poverty reduction.

Andriukaitis described Sinkevičius as rational and constructive but said he wanted to see stronger leadership. He said the prime minister should more actively defend the government’s position on the budget and taxes, particularly at the European Council.

He also praised Finance Minister Taurimas Valys, saying the budget proposal had been prepared in line with the country’s financial capacity, despite criticism of the minister.

Andriukaitis says tax policy needs serious debate

Andriukaitis said he had not seen specific plans for new taxes, but argued that Lithuania needed more serious discussion of tax policy.