During the television debate EAPL’s representative wounded

The representative of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania Beata Naniewicz was injured during Monday’s pre-election debate in the Lithuanian Public Television. Sliver of a glass thrown by nervous candidate to the Parliament on behalf of the party “The Way of Courage” hit the hand of EAPL’s representative.

“They say that I had a lot of luck. Glass was made of thick glass, so I will almost be without eye”- said to “Kurier” Beata Naniewicz.

On Monday evening in the Lithuanian Public Television was held a pre-election TV debate with representatives of three parties: Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, “The Way of Courage” and the Socialist People’s Front.

The incident occurred during a speech of a representative of the Socialist People’s Front, the former mayor of Vilnius and now entrepreneur, Vytautas Bernatonis. A millionaire seeking a mandate from the list of parliamentary socialists spoke about the events from 13th January 1991.
Offender number one in Lithuania is Vytautas Landsbergis whose impunity encouraged continuing rebel policy. Rebel policy is exactly what we have now. He was unable to control the power and felt social discontent. He realized that he could not be able to maintain power. Therefore, he provoked violent incidents on 13th January. I was a witness of these events”- said Bernatonis.

When these words fell, Algirdas Patackas, signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania, a former Soviet political prisoner, taking part in the elections from The Way of Courage list threw into Bernatonisa a glass of water.

“It looked like a deliberate promotional act. It did not look like Patackas really wanted to hit Bernatonis who was standing a several steps from him. He threw the glass on the floor and he did not calculated that a shard of glass may hit someone sitting in a television studio. I was sitting near the Bernatonis and the glass hit me in the arm. Employees of television led me, disinfected the wound, made a dressing, so I could go back to the studio”- says Beata Naniewicz.
Throwing a glass started protests of the Socialist People’s Front representatives. However, the presenters of the program did not remove Patackas from the studio.

Algirdas Patackas says that throwing a glass into his opponent was a deliberate and thoughtful action.
“My behavior was not emotional, but adequate and aware response to those who offended the victims from 13th January and defamed the leader of the country. I was a participant in that tragic events, because I could not behave in another was”- he said.
As told Beata Naniewicz, after the program, already in the locker room, Patackas walked up to her and apologized for the incident.

The EAPL’s representative believes that the behavior of these politicians was a theater extent.
“They have apologized to each other even during advertising block. Zero of emotion was also after the program. Generally it is sad that politicians are doing such tricks. They should have the lack of other arguments to convince voters to their rights. I believe that in the television debate representatives of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania came off the best. We have presented strong arguments, what and how we have need to fix in the country and we did not applied the theatrical tricks.”- says Beata Naniewicz. 

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2012/10/09/podczas-telewizyjnej-debaty-zraniono-przedstawicielke-awpl/

Tłumaczenie Daria Bergmann w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Daria Bergmann the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.