'Today during the press conference in the Seimas, conservative Andrius Kubilius did not miss the opportunity to attack his opponents, to incite national quarrels and, as it became already normal for him, to spread false information. A. Kubilius accused the EAPL of causing the tension in Polish-Lithuanian relations despite the fact that Polish community only protects itself from persecution and huge penalties and demands the restoration of the regulation of national minorities' rights, that were valid in 1991-2010,' the statement says.
The EAPL leader noted, that the Law on National Minorities has been cancelled a few years ago. The Law was ensuring broad range of rights for national communities in Lithuania; moreover, inscriptions in the Polish language have been placed legally according to the Law.
I would like to remind once again, that on 29th January 1991, after the bloody events in Vilnius, the Supreme Council has adopted the novelization of the Law on National Minorities which guaranteed wide spectre of rights (including the right to use the native language in the public life of the country, the right to informational and other inscriptions in the language of the national minority next to the state language) for national minorities. The Law was signed by none other than the then head of the state, current spiritual leader of the conservatives Vytautas Landsbergis. Namely then completely legal informational signs and street names in the Polish language, next to the Lithuanian ones, appeared in Vilnius and Šalčininkai districts. Unfortunately, the former ruling majority led by A. Kubilius annuled the Law on National Minorities in 2010. Moreover, A. Skaistys – the plenipotentiary of the Government in the Vilnius district, one of the Conservatives' party leaders, currently candidate for the European Parliament – initiated legal disputes regarding the bilingual names with the participation of administrations of self-governments of Vilnius and Šalčininkai districts despite the basic legal principle saying that 'law cannot be retroactive'. As we can see, the names were placed according to the law and cannot be removed without the adoption of a new legal act,' underlined V. Tomaševski.
The EAPL chairman explains, that the conservatives' attacks against the EAPL are caused by the loss of electorate.
'However, A. Kubilius, A. Skaistys and other conservatives do not care about the law – they care only about rankings. They started this unprecedented fight against national minorities only because they would like to gain more popularity in certain classes of our society. Conservatives started to worry about the growing popularity of the EAPL and the fact that more and more voters, including ethnic Lithuanians, support this political force. Nowadays A. Kubilius is trying to turn everything upside down; he wants to make national minorities responsible for the developed tension despite the fact that national communities only defend their rights that were valid for 19 years of independence,' Member of the European Parliament V. Tomaševski states.
V. Tomaševski criticised A. Kubilius and his team because of the frequent false affirmations. The EAPL Chairman said, that Kubilius's statement saying that the Vice-minister of Energy R. Cytacka has allegedly removed the Lithuanian version of the street-name plate from her private building, is another false affirmation.
'Even more, A. Kubilius and his team continue to pick quarrels, lie in the public space, slander the Polish national minority. A week ago, one of the leaders of Conservatives' party A. Bilotaitė publicly slandered the self-government of the Vilnius district by speaking about the alleged not very good economic situation of the district. Official data and results of public surveys clearly indicate that the Vilnius district is one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing districts in Lithuania. According to the economic indicators, Vilnius district is in the top ten of Lithuanian self-governments. Marija Rekst, mayor of the Self-government of the Vilnius district, has clearly and arguably rectified the slanders made by A. Bilotaitė, who tends to repeats A. Kubilius' lies. Unfortunately, A. Kubilius still disseminates lies. For example, he declared that the Vice-minister of Energy R. Cytacka committed a lie when commenting the statemet of D. Grybauskaitė made in the European Parliament, although the article of the Vice-minister is based on facts what is stressed by many commentators. During today's press conference A. Kubilius lied stating that the Vice-minister of Energy R. Cytacka has removed a street-name plate in the Lithuanian language from her house. But according to the facts, there are two plates on the house of the Vice-minister: one in Lithuanian (Mykolo Balinskio g.) and the other one in Polish (ul. Michała Balińskiego),' the statement says.
V. Tomaševski says, that the current situation of Conservatives' party is difficult. The EAPL leader also regrets that A. Kubilius ignores the opinion of the representatives of Lithuanian intelligents.
'Conservatives led by A. Kubilius are extremely worried over the tendency indicating the melting support of voters and the fact that more and more Lithuanians vote for the EAPL, which has made its reputations as an honest party, the members of which has never been involved in any corruption scandal and are living according to Christian values. The conservatives' worries and the consequent lies are not any news, but the current situation of the party itself is indeed quite complicated; the party did not manage to present a candidate for a president in fear of crushing defeat but also is deaf to propositions and appeals of sober-minded people. Not long ago members of the Forum of Dialogue and Cooperation of Jerzy Giedroyc appealed to the state politicians, including A. Kubilius, asking them to increase tensions and take actions in order to adopt the Law on National Minorities as soon as possible. Unfortunately, todays' press conference indicates that A. Kubilius ignores the appeal of the Forym of Jerzy Giedroyc, does not take into account opinions and suggestions of rationally thinking people and together with A. Skaistys continues to raise the tensions and stir up national quarrels in Lithuania,' Valdemar Tomaševski, the EAPL leader, Member of the European Parliament stated.
Based on BNS
