At the end of the year, Lithuanian lawmakers created a situation where even a cat has a say in whether to dismiss the head of the country’s public broadcaster, Politico reports.
The unusual situation has arisen at a time when the Seimas is fast-tracking amendments to the law governing public broadcaster LRT, changes that would make it easier to remove the broadcaster’s director general. The legislative changes are being pushed forward in response to a recent audit that found several shortcomings. The audit’s conclusions, however, did not mention a change in the director general or changes to the legislation.
Critics of the proposed changes have pointed out that the reforms are designed to get rid of the current LRT director general, Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė. Opposition MPs want to delay the introduction of the changes to the law and have submitted more than 100 amendments to the bill. Among them is a clause that states that the head of the LRT can only be removed from office if opposition MP Agnė Širinskienė’s cat Nuodėgulis (meaning charred coal) expresses no confidence in Garbačauskaitė-Budrienė. The parliament voted in favor of all the amendments, including the one involving the cat. True, the final vote is scheduled for early next year.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda could cancel the changes to the law. When asked about the possible action, Nausėda was visibly irritated and asked whether the law with the cat should be vetoed or the law with the whole cat should be passed: “What are we even talking about?
Are we discussing a serious draft law that officially reaches the presidency, or are we telling jokes?”
As tensions mount, Nausėda has warned that the parliamentary catfight is beginning to resemble a self-inflicted hybrid attack. He said there was no need to even send balloons from Belarus if Lithuanians were organizing an attack on themselves. The president added that Lithuania’s ship in the geopolitical ocean was small enough as it was, and there was no need to rock it any further.
The Lithuanian president has called for the resignation of the LRT council, and Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė has also supported this, telling reporters that what is happening in the Seimas is absolutely unacceptable.
More than 400 employees have signed a petition to the LRT council calling for it to resign. Such a development would also lead to the departure of the director general. Meanwhile, anger has also spilled out into the streets. Protests on the 17th of December drew more than 10,000 participants, and more are planned for the coming days. The petition against the legislative changes has been signed by more than 140,000 people online, making it one of the most widely supported online petitions ever.
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The post A cat gets caught up in the fray around Lithuania’s public broadcaster; president outraged by the nonsense appeared first on Baltic News Network.
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