Lithuania’s Conservatives come out on top in EU vote

3 months ago 16

The ruling Homeland Union-Christian Democrats of Lithuania (EPP) has won the EU elections, securing three seats in the European Parliament with 21.3% of the vote, while the centre-left Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (S&D), which led pre-election polls, came in second with 18% of the vote and two of Lithuania’s 11 seats, according to the country’s Central Election Commission (VRK).

Six other parties won one seat each: Lietuvos valstiečių ir žaliųjų sąjunga (Greens/EFA) with 9.1%, Laisvės partija (Renew Europe) with 8.1%, the Democratic Union “Vardan Lietuvos” (Greens/EFA) with 6% of the vote, Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija-Krikščioniškų šeimų sąjunga (ECR) with 5.8%, Tautos ir teisingumo sąjunga (NI) and Liberalų sąjūdis (Renew Europe) with 5.5% and 5.4% respectively.

Voter turnout in Lithuania has plummeted relative to 2019, with just 28.35% of eligible voters having cast their ballots when polling stations closed, down from 41.7% five years ago.

By 8 pm on Sunday, 20.93% of the electorate had gone to the polling stations, and together with the 7.41% who voted before election day, Lithuania had one of the lowest turnout rates in the EU elections, public broadcaster LRT reported.

Matas Baltrukevičius, head of the Information Policy and Analysis Department at the National Library of Lithuania, told Euractiv that the low turnout was due to presidential elections two weeks before the EU elections.

In 2019, both votes were held simultaneously.

“Presidential elections and parliamentary elections are more important in Lithuania than European elections are,” Baltrukevičius said.

“I think we have this phenomenon in Lithuania that European politics is external politics, not internal politics.”

However, Sunday was not Lithuania’s lowest-ever turnout: in 2009, when the European elections also did not coincide with either the presidential or parliamentary elections, the turnout for the European elections was 21%.

(Thomas Moller-Nielsen, Liene Lūsīte | Euractiv.com)