Lithuania’s Social Democrats win parliamentary election

Lithuania’s opposition Social Democratic Party won parliamentary elections on Sunday, pushing out Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and her incumbent Homeland Union — Lithuanian Christian Democrats.

“The results are great,” Social Democrats (LSDP) leader Vilija Blinkevičiūtė told reporters at the party’s election night headquarters. “It showed that people want change.”

However, Mažvydas Jastramskis, associate professor at the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, said it was hard to identify what will really change from rule by the Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) in an election-night interview with LRT television. 

For instance, Lithuania will maintain its hardline approach toward Russia and will keep its pro-Western foreign policy, with LDSP having vocally supported increasing the defense budget.

Blinkevičiūtė, a member of the European Parliament, is hoping to form a coalition with the Union of Democrats “For Lithuania” (DSVL) and the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS), she told reporters.

However, while she had said earlier she would quit as an MEP to take up the job of prime minister, on Sunday she didn’t give a clear answer to reporters who asked her to confirm that plan. DSVL leader Saulius Skvernelis, however, said he was “100 percent” sure Blinkevičiūtė would take the prime minister’s role.

The polls closed at 8 p.m. Vilnius time, counting votes from 63 constituencies that had no clear winner after the first round of parliamentary elections Oct. 13.

Official results had LDSP securing 52 seats out of 141, while TS-LKD got 28 seats. The nationalist-populist Dawn of Nemunas won 20 seats while the DVSL took 14, the Liberal Movement got 12 and LVŽS 8.

Some 78 parliamentarians were elected during the first round, with the Social Democrats prevailing. 

The 141 seats in the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament, are awarded through both party lists (70 seats) and direct representation (71 seats).