Ažubalis: The situation of national minorities in Lithuania is excellent

“When I read, see or hear that at a meeting senior officials talk about moving a school 2.5 kilometres away instead of discussing geopolitical risks and bilateral trade, which is actually flourishing, I find it regrettable” – said Audronius Ažubalis, the Seimas member and former foreign minister.

“Polish politicians will have to find the courage to say: we have reached a dead end. It can always be better, but the situation of Polish national community in Lithuania is good, or even excellent. We too could provide numerous examples of detoriorating situation of Lithuanian schools in Poland, but these issues should be resolved at a much lower level and cannot distract from strategic matters” – noted Ažubalis.

He claimed that the issue of names spelling is invented.

“I am not the first to say that the citizens of Lithuania should follow the Lithuanian legislation and respect the Lithuanian Constitution and the state language. Spelling of names is not a problem, I do not see this as a problem at all. It is artificial and makes certain political forces stay afloat as it causes further escalation of problems of this type. For certain reasons, those people do not care about the things they really should” – argued the conservative.

“In the south-eastern part of Lithuania the biggest challenges concern economic and social areas. I do not intend to provide figures right now – criminogenic situation, the lowest pensions, the lowest salaries, the fewest direct foreign investments. Why these politicians do not care about that?” – added Ažubalis.

As he claimed, during the governance of conservatives, over the period 2010-2012 five million litai were spent on the Vilnius region development scheme, but it was discontinued when a new government took office.

“Still, however, too little attention was devoted to this region” – stressed the politician.

In an interview with Audronius Ažubalis – about aspirations of Polish and Lithuanian politicians, different approaches to history and chances for reaching an agreement.