Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania

The Lithuanian Central Electoral Commission distributed the year's first subsidies – a total of €2.7 million – to nine parties.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius is approaching the line where half of its original members will have been replaced, necessitating a confirmation vote in parliament.

After Thursday's rally of ethnic minority schools, a dispute has broken out between the protestors and the Vilnius municipality authorities over the aims of the rally – whether it was to improve the status of minority schools or achieve political objectives in light of upcoming elections.

Representatives of ethnic minority schools are staging a rally outside the Municipality of Vilnius on Thursday in protest of what organizers say is assault on ethnic minority education.

Most Lithuanian members of the European Parliament are not planning to run for seats in the national parliament, Seimas, this October. Many are likely to have been deterred by new electoral rules which would automatically deprive elected MPs of their seats in the EP.

The Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (EAPL), a political party representing Lithuania's Polish minority, has suggested implementing new taxes on bank assets and major retail chains' turnover based on similar moves in Poland.

Despite plenty of issues of common interest at international level, relations between Poland and Lithuania remain frozen.

The Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania party has proposed an amendment to electoral laws that would lower the threshold for ethnic minority parties to win parliament seats.

Five parties would pass the 5-percent threshold and secure seats in the Lithuanian Parliament if elections were to take place in the nearest future, the latest public opinion poll has revealed.

The expected triumph of the right-wing Law and Justice party in Poland's parliamentary elections will likely make relations between Vilnius and Warsaw more tense, particularly on issues pertaining to ethnic minorities, says Professor Šarūnas Liekis of Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University.

The leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (LLRA) MEP Valdemar Tomaševski says there is nothing sensational about his meeting with representatives of Russian TV channel Perviy Baltiysky Kanal (First Baltic Channel).

Representatives of Lithuania's Polish-speaking community, backed by the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (LLRA) political party, are planning a protest action this week over ethnic minority education and the planned reforms of the Labour Code, lzinios.lt reports.

Students of some of Polish-language schools in Lithuania skipped classes on Wednesday in protest of education provisions and went to a church service instead.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius says that some politicians defame Lithuania by accusing it of alleged discrimination against the Polish community in the field of education.

The strike by teachers and pupils of ethnic minority schools is being fuelled by politicians of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (LLRA), a party drawing its electorate from Lithuania's Polish-speaking population, the country's Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius says.

Lithuanian MEPs Vilija Blinkevičiūtė and Zigmantas Balčytis of the Social Democrats and Liberal Antanas Guoga were the country's most active members in the European Parliament over the 1st year of their term, the Lietuvos Žinios daily reports.

LGBT groups on Thursday expressed regret over the choice of Polish organizations in Lithuania to wear homophobic T-shirts with slogans Vilnius on Bicycles without Pedals (Wilno Na Rowerach Bez Pedalow) during their recent congress.

Representatives of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (LLRA), a party representing Lithuania's Polish-speaking community, as well as of education establishments on Monday held a protest outside the office of the Government of Lithuania, demanding to preserve ethnic minority schools, currentl...

Russia's aggression in Ukraine has exposed Lithuania's sloppiness in dealing with its own ethnic minorities. Research shows that, amidst media craze about the war in Ukraine, Lithuania's Russian-speaking citizens get increasingly often depicted as a domestic risk, while their alleged disloyalty to t...

The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania remains the most popular party in the country, and Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius and President Dalia Grybauskaitė have the highest popularity ratings, a survey showed on Saturday.