Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė has officially nominated Laurynas Kasčiūnas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence, to President Gitanas Nausėda for the position of defence minister, the government said on Tuesday.
“Kasčiūnas is being nominated in view of his experience and active work as the chairman of the Committee on National Security and Defence, which is of particular significance for the implementation of the priorities of strengthening national defence in the short term,” the statement said.
Incumbent Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas announced his resignation last week at the prime minister’s request.
Šimonytė said she had suggested that Anušauskas should step down because he had not been active enough on key defence policies such as the conscription reform, the search for additional defence funding sources, and the expansion of the active military reserve.
President Gitanas Nausėda plans to meet with Kasčiūnas on Wednesday. The president has said that when deciding on a new minister, it will be important for him to ensure the smooth continuity of work at the Ministry of National Defence.
Kasčiūnas has already voiced his readiness to take up the new post, adding that his main task in the position would be to implement the principle of universal defence.
Ministers are appointed and dismissed by the president on the nomination of the prime minister.
Bringing in opposition
“The first task for any new minister, whoever he or she will be, is to bring the opposition back and to talk to the opposition,” Kasčiūnas commented on Tuesday.
After Defence Minister Anušauskas announced his resignation, representatives of opposition parties did not take part in Monday’s meeting about defence funding, saying that they saw no point until the new minister is appointed.
The opposition also raised questions regarding Anušauskas’s hints about alleged corruption related to the Defence Ministry’s public procurement tenders.
Prime Minister Šimonyte also said on Monday she would try to persuade the opposition to get back to the negotiating table.
Representatives of the two junior coalition partners, the liberal Freedom Party and the Liberal Movement, say they do not object to the prime minister’s choice, but they point out that they have ideological and human-rights related disagreements with Kasčiūnas, who has been an ardent opponent of immigration and LGBTQ+ rights.
“I want to say a very simple thing to the Freedom Party: we will defend all Lithuanian citizens, regardless of their views. I am guided by the following attitude: every citizen – whether they love me, respect me or hate me – is equally precious to me," the ministerial candidate responded.
Still, Freedom Party leader Aušrinė Armonaitė said on Tuesday that her party did not support Kasčiūnas’ candidacy.
“The new candidate for minister, Laurynas Kasčiūnas, does not have the support of the Freedom Party. This is why: our political views are often opposite, he has consistently pursued policies that are incompatible with the values represented by the Freedom Party, and he has deliberately blocked projects in the Seimas, such as the Civil Union bill and the like,” Armonaitė, herself the minister of economy, posted on Facebook.
“This is the decision and the choice made by the prime minister and the TS-LKD, from which we dissociate ourselves,” said the leader of the coalition partners of the conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD).
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