The peasants seek to legitimize the shadow government

The largest opposition Lithuanian Peasants ‘and Greens’ Union (LVŽS) seeks to legitimize its shadow government. Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen is skeptical about this proposal. Some members of the LVŽS faction prepared amendments to the Statute of the Seimas to legalize such a structure. The LVŽS has established a shadow Cabinet of Ministers, regularly organizes its meetings, provides various suggestions and comments, but no legal act provides for such a structure. According to the “peasants” proposal, the Statute of the Seimas would provide that the largest opposition faction in the Seimas may appoint a shadow government, appointing a shadow prime minister and shadow ministers of the ministries listed in the Government Law. The person authorized by the party would submit the nominal composition of the shadow Government to the Speaker of the Seimas and it would be announced publicly at the next sitting of the Seimas. The proposals of the Shadow Government would be indicative, but the state institutions would have to consider and respond to them in writing. According to the draft, a member of the Seimas who is a member of the shadow government would also have the right to speak on behalf of the shadow government when the Government program and its annual report At the sitting of the Seimas “Legal uncertainty, when the legal status of the shadow government is unclear, also raises practical problems in its cooperation with the government and state institutions formed by the ruling majority,” the “peasants” refer to in the explanatory memorandum to the project. According to them, the enactment of the shadow government would strengthen the opposition’s ability to “exercise parliamentary control and work constructively on behalf of the electorate”. “Additional instruments that the opposition would gain from adopting the amendments would strengthen the parliament and make the dialogue between the rulers and the opposition more constructive. At the same time, the traditions of parliamentary democracy would be developed – we would join the circle of Western democracies, where the activities of the shadow government are officially recognized and appreciated, “said Aurelijus Veryga, Deputy Prime Minister of the LVŽS shadow government. The Speaker of the Seimas V. Čmilytė-Nielsen stated that the shadow government is more a tradition than an institute regulated in any way by law. “This is Mr. Karbauskis’ desire to regulate everything,” the head of the parliament told Knowledge Radio this week. “The shadow government is a tool used by the opposition, but in those old democracies it is mostly a tool based on tradition and is not enshrined in law or regulated. I think there is no need for that. If the Peasants ‘and Greens’ faction seems to have too little attention paid to their shadow government, it is perhaps more of a problem for them than for the Seimas as a whole, “V. Čmilytė-Nielsen asserted. The above-mentioned amendments to the statute were prepared after the public intersection of the Prime Minister of the “Peasants”, the leader of the LVŽS Ramūnas Karbauskis and the Head of the Government Ingrida Šimonytė. After R. Karbauskis’ reprimands that neither the Prime Minister nor the Government responded to the opposition’s proposals, urges, remarks on stopping the pandemic, resolving the migrant crisis, changing taxes, I. Šimonytė issued a public letter that R. Karbauskis demands special attention and conditions “to his a structure called the shadow government, although this does not comply with either the Constitution or the Statute of the Seimas. ” “While in the traditions of world parliamentarism, shadow opposition governments are a great tool for strengthening democracy, your actions, to put it mildly, are not very in line with those traditions. Such formats usually operate within parliaments, where the acting prime minister is opposed by the leader of the largest opposition political group, presenting alternative draft decisions or questions. You have voluntarily resigned from the mandate of a member of the Seimas and your conviction that such a structure not provided for in the Statute, as your proclaimed group of like-minded people operating outside the Seimas, has any special rights does not comply with any principles of democratic accountability, “wrote I. Šimonytė. Reproduction of BNS news agency information in mass media and websites without the written consent of UAB “BNS” is prohibited.

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