The party's Council approved this decision on Friday. If successful, Veryga will be nominated for the post of Prime Minister.
„The LVŽS Council has decided that Aurelijus Veryga will lead the list to the elections. He can become Prime Minister if the Lithuanian Peasants' and Greens’ Union forms the Government. (In this case – ELTA) he will give up his mandate in the European Parliament,“ Karbauskis told journalists in Babtai, where a meeting of the party's Council was held on Friday.
The Peasant Party leader himself has said he will not seek a parliamentary mandate and will head the party's electoral staff.
„I will head the electoral headquarters, so I cannot run for the Seimas. And accordingly, we hope to meet people's expectations in forming the future Seimas by changing the current policy, which is related to huge corruption, failed decisions, and incompetent Government,“ Karbauskis said.
„I hope that we will be able to meet people's expectations,“ he added.
Veryga has no plans to give up his MEP mandate for the time being
Veryga, elected leader of the party's list in the Seimas elections, has no plans to give up his MEP mandate, which he won in the spring.
„I will not give up my MEP mandate, but I will try to balance the work. Of course, it should be understood that the first months of the EP are more like formative months, the formation of the work, the formation of committees, and the voting for the candidates for the commissions. So, I will try to harmonise these duties“, Veryga told journalists about the Council's decision.
„Of course, I won't be able to spend as much time on the elections as I could on the presidential elections, but I will try to do this work as well as possible,“ the politician said.
He noted that no talks have yet taken place about which parties LVŽS could negotiate with for support in the second round of parliamentary elections.
„For now, we are not talking or thinking about it. We don't have anyone to negotiate with now because we need to win the elections first“, said Veryga.
„In the second round of the elections, I think there are already conversations, talks about who could support whom, and the Chairman of our party has said that if in a single-mandate constituency, our candidate was to clash with others, we would invite those who are in the opposition to support us, and we would similarly consider the possibility of supporting, for example, a candidate of the Social Democrats,“ the Peasant noted.
The position of list leader has not been offered to Vėgėlė
Earlier, it was speculated that Ignas Vėgėlė, a lawyer who sought the post of the country's leader and with whom Karbauskis had met several times after the presidential elections, might become the leader of the party list. However, Karbauskis said Vėgėlė had never been offered a place on the party's list for the Seimas elections.
„We have never offered him to become a party member. We have never offered him any place on the list. (...) We only talked about the need to strengthen the representation of those political forces that are in favour of traditional values. (...) We did not talk about the position of the leader of the list,“ the chairman of the LVŽS party told journalists.
However, he said he does not rule out the possibility that Vėgėlė could be included in the party's list in the Seimas elections.
ELTA recalls that Veryga won a seat in the EP this spring. The second number two on the party's list was Bronis Ropė, a Peasant who sought a second term in the EP.
As LVŽS Chairman Karbauskis told Elta earlier, the party's leader in the elections and candidate for Prime Minister will be a member. This decision was taken after it was announced that lawyer Ignas Vėgėlė, who was seeking the presidency, would not lead the LVŽS list.
LVŽS had also expressed its support for Ignas Vėgėlė in the presidential elections. Following this decision, LVŽS rejected the candidacy of the former Minister of Health, Veryga. For his part, Vėgėlė supported the Peasants in their candidacy for the European Parliament.
The Seimas elections in Lithuania will take place on 14 October this year.
