Vilija Blinkeviciute’s Social Democrats win Lithuanian elections defeating outgoing premier

For the second time in a row, Lithuania will have a female premier, most likely to be the Social Democratic Party (PsI) leader Vilija Blinkeviciute, who won an impressive 32 seats in the second round of the elections, securing a total of 50 MPs out of the 141 seats available. 

Follows, as results at the polls, the Patriotic League (Lp) party of outgoing premier Ingrida Simonyte, which won a total of 27 seats, 10 of those in the second round.

The Social Democrats – until yesterday the opposition party in the Baltic country – after the second round have far outdistanced their Lp opponents: Simonyte’s party had secured 17 seats in the first round, just one less than Blinkeviciute’s party (18).  Much sharper, however, was the gap after yesterday’s vote, in which the PsI secured 32 seats, more than three times as many as the Patriotic League (only 10 at the second turn). 

“The result of the elections has showed that the Lithuanian people, no matter where they live, in large cities or small villages, they want changes. They want a totally different government, non-arrogant, one which hears their problems and looks for solutions to their problems” stated Vilija Blinkeviciute after the victory. 

The popularity of Simonyte’s outgoing government, which took office in 2020, had suffered a severe setback as a result of political scandals involving some members of her cabinet, including the one over migrants from nearby Belarus. 

The two main Lithuanian parties, now that the run-up to the elections has ended, are followed by the Sunrise party on Nemunas (An, 19 seats), the centrist “In the Name of Lithuania” (Inl) movement of former Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis (14), the League of Liberals (LI) of the Parliament president Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen (11) and the League of Greens and Peasants (Lvc), with 8 seats. 

In the last positions are Freedom and Justice (Lg), the Electoral Cartel of Poles of Lithuania (Cepl) and the extreme right movement National Grouping (Rg), all with one seat each.

Consultations to form a new government will start today, with Vilija Blinkeviciute’s Social Democratic Party trying to form a coalition with the centrist movement “In the Name of Lithuania” (Inl) and the League of Greens and Peasants (Lvc).

The victory of the Social Democratic Party in Lithuania, which borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to the west and Belarus to the east, comes just after the much-discussed success of the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party in Georgia.