Last days of coalition building: parties' „appetite for positions“ becomes clear

On Tuesday, parliamentarians told the Seimas where the ruling coalition negotiations are and where the politicians' choices are heading.

Speaking about the coalition formation process, LSDP Prime Minister-designate Paluckas said that consultations are currently taking place in a bilateral format, with talks with both the Democrats and the Peasants taking place on Tuesday.

At the same time, the Social Democrats will meet with the Liberal Movement and Nemuno Aušra (The Dawn of Nemunas) on Wednesday.

„All-around talks are going on: first on the programmatic provisions, and then, of course, the political appetite for positions, who could do the best job, will be discussed. The full picture will be discussed“, Paluckas said.

The politician said the Social Democrats' negotiating group would attend these talks with an already prepared draft of the coalition agreement.

„The coalition agreement itself is being prepared based on the Social Democrats' election programme, and there we talk about the general principles that any partners who are going to cooperate should follow.

But the most critical area of our public policy life is the delivery of public services, the sustainability of funding, defence funding, support for Ukraine and so on,“ he said.

However, there will also be talks with parties not in the coalition.

„In this case, it is not only important from whom we will form a coalition, but also how one or the other group that remains in opposition will react to one or the other of the proposals because some of them require a broad political consensus and support, whether it is tax adjustments or defence funding“, he said.

The Social Democrats are leaning towards a coalition with the Democrats and the Peasants. Paluckas said that the Social Democrats' duty was to try to reconcile the conflicting leaders of these parties, Saulius Skvernelis and Ramūnas Karbauskis.

„We must try. If we succeed, we will succeed; if we fail, we will fail, but we are positive – first of all because of the compatibility of the programmes, and the personalities of experienced politicians should be overcome or at least temporarily put aside“, he urged.

Paluckas said that on Saturday, the LSDP Council will meet, where the draft coalition agreement, agreed with the coalition partners, will be presented. According to Paluckas, there will be an agreement on the division of ministries and the division of the positions in the Seimas—according to Paluckas, without any concrete names.

At the same time, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, the Speaker of the Seimas and leader of the Liberal Movement, claimed that she could not yet say that the Liberals would work in the opposition in the next parliamentary term.

„Naturally, the Social Democrats are looking for solutions – and we can see that this search is not so easy. I counted that they have at least five different options for different majorities. But we will see how they decide“, said Čmilytė-Nielsen.

At the same time, the Liberal leader reiterated her conditions.

„The Liberals have communicated very openly and clearly about their possible positions on the coalition since the first round. Naturally, the Liberals would pull any centre-left coalition firmly towards the liberal side, so we would certainly not be easy partners.

Therefore, the Social Democrats now have to decide whether they will follow the path they have already started on – whether they will form a coalition with the Democrats and the Peasants, or perhaps with Nemuno Aušra, or whether they will look for a more diverse format,“ she emphasised.

According to Čmilytė-Nielsen, the Social Democrats and the Liberals had various conversations after the first and second rounds, but they were not concrete.

„There has not been and cannot be a concrete, negotiating conversation as long as the Social Democrats publicly identify their priority as working with the Peasants and the Nemuno Aušra,“ she said.