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Social Democrats win Lithuania’s election

AP – Lithuania’s centre-left opposition parties celebrated victory yesterday after prevailing over the centre-right ruling coalition in the final round of national elections.

With 100 per cent of votes counted from Sunday’s polls, the Social Democrats won 52 seats in the 141-seat Parliament, known as the Seimas, ending the four-year rule of the Homeland Union government led by conservative Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė.

The Social Democrats will start talks on forming a majority cabinet with two smaller center-left parties, the Democratic Union and the Union of Peasants and Greens, which won respectively 14 and eight seats. The coalition is expected to control at least 74 seats.

Šimonytė’s Homeland Union won only 28 seats in the two-round election.

Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, who heads the Social Democrats, thanked supporters as a cheering crowd celebrated victory in downtown Vilnius on Sunday.

“I am very grateful to the people of Lithuania who were so active today voting for us” she said adding that “the results have shown that the people want change, a completely different government”.

The outcome was a surprise to the ruling conservatives, who were only two seats behind the Social Democrats after the first round.

Analysts had predicted that Lithuania is set to continue a historic pattern where voters tend to look a different way every four years.

Šimonytė conceded, noting the pattern. “In Lithuania that’s the way it is, every election we see the pendulum swinging in one direction or the other,” she told reporters. “We respect the will of the voters.”

Analysts say there won’t be any significant change in Lithuania’s foreign policy.

The outgoing government faced criticism for the strict measures it adopted during the pandemic, with many complaining that her government didn’t do enough to help companies during lockdown.

Others say thousands of people didn’t have proper access to health care.

Leader of the Social Democratic Party Vilija Blinkeviciute speaks to the media in an office in Vilnius, Lithuania. PHOTO: AP
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