Sinkevičius – On the conservative desire for Landsberg: In Brussels, this desire is expressed in every possible way

Speaking about the negative attitude of Lithuanian voters in these elections, V. Sinkevičius said he was not surprised at all.

“Even my 8-year-old son probably knew it was going to be less than 30 percent.” And to make it bigger, there was little chance. People like me who have driven around the area and heard what people say can attest to that.

The main reasons are: people are generally tired of elections, they don’t think there is much point in voting in the European Parliament elections, they think it is only good for the elected MEPs and not for the people. There is a lot of skepticism about this,” comments V. Sinkevičius.

A European Commission member said that low voter turnout was not only the result of voters’ lack of interest in EU politics, but also the result of the media’s own lack of analysis of political decisions.

V. Sinkevičius does not dare to predict whether he will enter the European Parliament.

“I think it’s going to be a very close result. Of course, our weakness is the cities. Let’s see how successful we are in mobilizing voters in the districts. We’re being very realistic about that.

I know that there are many celebrities in our party, and many people think that our party has a long history like the Social Democratic Party or the Conservative Party. But this is not true. We are a party that has only been established for two years.

I think we will see how many voters we can get. That will be the result we will be able to resist when we go to the parliamentary elections,” the EU commissioner said.

V. Sinkevičius said his party was the only political force to attend all debates to show respect to the organizers. But few voters gathered in smaller districts for the debates.

“Two things stand out: we are optimists and we don’t participate in elections. This means that we accept everything that comes from Brussels, treat it as a sacred cow, and don’t question it: neither the public nor the politicians”, V. Sinkevičius commented on how Brussels sees Lithuanians.

Meanwhile, EU commissioners say confusion among factions and calculations over who will be able to preside over the Commission are already underway.

“During the last session in Strasbourg, the Greens, Liberals and Socialists tried to register a proposal for the appointment of the President of the European Commission on July 18. But the largest faction of the EPP, which also includes the President of the Commission, disagreed with this and did not convene a meeting of the Bureau, leaving the decision pending because they wanted to see what the final result would be, flirting with the political right and potentially picking up votes there and weakening the grand coalition parties.

So the scenarios could be very diverse. If Parliament is very fragmented, if the coalition is not closed, and I really want the Greens to join and form a pro-European coalition, then the president can only be appointed in mid-September.

It will then send an invitation to member states to nominate commissioners. For the nomination, in the case of Ursula von der Leyen, she will ask for two people – a man and a woman, to meet with two people, to talk to two people. The names will then be submitted to the Legal Committee for review to see if there is a conflict of interest.

Then, once the list of commissioners is confirmed, the commission chairman will hold a press conference and announce who will take over which position. Only then do you need to prepare for the audition, and then the auditions will begin.

Therefore, in practice the EC will start working only on January 1. If all processes are accelerated, the process will move very quickly and will become a reality on December 1”, explains V. Sinkevičius.

He believes that Lithuania’s current ruling majority will try to nominate a new EU commissioner in every possible way.

“Knowing how the current party chairman wants to be nominated, they try to nominate the party chairman in every possible way. This desire is not announced in Lithuania, but it is announced in Brussels in every possible way. It is a full-scale campaign: communication with the media, political scientists. This is really happening. There are no secrets in Brussels”, V. Sinkevičius said with a smile.