중동부유럽

Lithuania’s general election has resulted in a crushing defeat for the incumbent center-right government, led by Ingrida Šimonytė. The largest party of the outgoing governing coalition, the Homeland Union, lost nearly half of its seats and came a distant second with 28 MPs in the 141-seat parliament, while one of their junior coalition parties, the liberal Freedom Party, failed to win a single seat. Only one of the coalition parties, the Liberal Movement, managed to perform well, securing 12 seats (only one down from 13). Meanwhile, the big winners were the Social Democrats with 52 seats. Other parties making it to the parliament include the newly formed right-wing party, Nemunas Dawn, with 20 seats, centrist Democrats for Lithuania (14 seats) and populist Peasants and Greens (eight seats). The other seats were won by smaller parties or individual candidates. The crushing nature of the defeat has already led the chair of the Homeland Union party, outgoing Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, to announce not only his resignation from party leadership but also his retirement from politics. The outgoing government dealt with the effects of global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Despite those challenges and a term marred by several scandals that led to the resignation of two ministers, it was primarily domestic politics that led to a change in government.