Lithuania’s great leap to the ‘dark ages’
July 17, 2009 at 4:11 pm 5 comments
A comment has been posted on this blog in relation to the recently adopted law on protection of minors against negative information.
“we have one more state which shares with us the Western liberal values. ”
LOL! Oh yes, please Mr Adamkus, tell us about your glorious “Western liberal values”.
http://baltictimes.com/news/articles/23212/
Doesn’t seem like the Baltic times agrees with this assessment.’
Here is what I would like to say on this issue:
I totally agree with you point and I am whole hart ashamed with this legislation, which by no any means does not correspond with the Western liberal values. However, I would like to make few points here.
First of all, Mr Adamkus has vetoed this legislation. Nevertheless, Seimas with the majority votes over ruled the veto and adopted this law. The law is not coming into effect any time soon. From what I remember it suppose to come into force next year.
Second point is that our new President Grybauskaite has resolutely declared that she does not support this law, but regrettably she will have to sign it today. The president will have to comply with the Constitution.
Thirdly, the Liberal movement has announced that it will initiate an appeal to the Constitutional Court, which will have to explain if the Law does not contravene with Constitution. According to the Constitution the President could also put complain to the Constitutional Court on the same grounds.
Fourthly, the President has a Constitutional right to initiate amendments to a law. Ms Grybauskaite mentioned that she will do just that, perhaps even during this session (the session will end on the 23 July) as Lietuvos Zinios paper wrote.
Lithuania’s society at large is still very homophobic and in majority supports this law. However, the most upsetting circumstance in all this is that our politicians, even those who got their PhDs in Oxbridge in the UK, has also voted in favour of this law. Instead of loosing some of its political capital by educating its electorate their confirmed with homophobic radical mullahs MPs. This is really shocking, even though major papers but Respublika, which is homophobic, ultra nationalist, anti-Semitic, and anti everything, have condemned the law.
The EU, and the international organisations should keep condemning this act of barbaric medievalism and put a lot of pressure to the Lithuanian politicians.
Entry filed under: Baltic States, Estonia, EU, Grybauskaite, Latvia, Lithuania, Northern Europe, Politics.
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Lituanica 
1. Global Voices Online » Lithuania: View from Vilnius on anti-gay law | July 18, 2009 at 2:52 am
[…] raises the heated issue of the new anti-gay legislation in Lithuania, and explains that it is still some […]
2.
observer | July 19, 2009 at 3:07 am
Wow, I wasn’t expecting a whole blog post in response to my comment. And a very well-thought-out and courteous one too.
I didn’t think President Adamkus personally supported this law, I knew that he had vetoed the law; I didn’t know the new President’s stance on it – thank you for that information. That’s encouraging.
There are a lot of viewpoints about this issue which I won’t go into here. The main point of my comment was that when a state enacts laws like this, it reduces its credibility when it preaches about “liberal values” to other countries. Georgia may feel embarrassed if, for example, the Swedish Prime Minister made such comments, but why should they take it very seriously if Lithuania makes similar comments – all they have to do is point at a law like this and say, “But who are you to make such judgements?”
But again, thank you for taking the time and effort to respond in such a well-thought out and mature manner.
3.
Ruslanas Iržikevičius | July 19, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Dear Observer,
Observer, this is what Grybauskaite said during here inauguration speech in the Parliament: ‘Having established our authority, based on one thousand-year-old wisdom, in Western Europe, we will feel much stronger in the East and we will be more respected by those nations that follow the example of Lithuanian Freedom.’
Her first official visit was to Sweden, the country we have much to learn from. This is a shift in our policy, at least looking from the presidential palace. I would like to point out that according to Constitution it is the President who sets guidelines for the Foreign Policy. Times are changing, at least in the Foreign Policy front.
P.S. the law for protection against negative information for minors should go into effect in March 2010. So, there is some time for the western politicians to talk to some of their Lithuanian colleagues, especially from the Conservative party who voted in favour of it, to persuade them that they crossed the red line. Just to remind them that safeguarding the western values (as they are claiming to do) and voting for this law is, lets put it mildly, a disproportional miss understanding.
My best regards,
4.
Paradigm | July 20, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I think Lithuania should look more to the US as a model for free speech. After all, Sweden and several other countries have laws forbidding people to say demeaning things about gays. That is also a form of intolerance.
5.
Mathieu | July 21, 2009 at 11:12 am
it’s seems that one more time there is an awful lot of time being wasted here on an issue that should not be one as this law instigates hatred and division and will fall through. but how long and how much damage to Lithuania will it do until they write it off?
the family, the sexual behaviors, the environment, the education, the medical system, the ethnic minorities, culture, all these aspect that constitute the diversity and the well being of a society , both being sacrificed to a 15th century political correctness and dictated by an almighty church and a lawless market economy in an unstable political environment.
deadly mixture!!
where is the window for hope?