- December 19, 2012
- 414
Tomaszewski: We will support the budget, provided that
Rita Tamašunienė, the elder of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, told PL DELFI that the faction will support passing the budget at the Thursday voting. Last Tuesday (18th December) the members of EAPL, the Labour Party (Darbo partija) and Order and Justice (Tvarka Ir teisingumas) were opposed to passing the budget on Thursday.
Yesterday evening the leader of EAPL, Waldemar Tomaszewski, and Rita Tamašunienė attended a meeting of the coalition partners. Tomaszewski asserted that the party would support the budget, provided that some niceties are accounted for.
“Of course we will support the budget, but certain aspects need addressing (…). We were informed that our demands would be taken into consideration. There are a few issues to be refined before Thursday,” Tomaszewski told PL DELFI. According to the leader of EAPL those issues are investment programmes in different areas: education, culture and historic preservation.
The elder of the faction also confirmed that EAPL members will vote for passing the budget. “We will vote for passing the budget. The reason for our abstention from the vote on Tuesday was quite a few ambiguities,” said Tamašunienė. She claimed that there had been unfinished points concerning agricultural subsidies and investment programmes in the budget plan. Tamašunienė informed that the coalition meeting had been attended by the ministers and that at the time she had no further questions as to how particular projects would be financed.
The Prime Minister of the RL was pleased with the meeting. He informed journalists that all questions concerning the budget were resolved and there would be no problems with passing the budget. According to the Prime Minister the members of the Labour Party voted “against” not as a protest against social democrats who want to vote for revoking parliamentary immunities, but as an expression of dissatisfaction with the proposed allocation of funds.
According to Wiktor Uspaskich the reason why the budget provides money only for districts that traditionally support conservatives during elections is that the budget was drawn up by the former coalition.
Tłumaczenie Aleksandra Christ w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Aleksandra Christ the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.