Lithuania Modern History

By | September 26, 2021

The abandonment of the principle of the leading role of the Communist Party (December 1989), preceded by a couple of months from the split of the Lithuanian Communist Party from the CPSU, marked, in fact, the first ever introduction of political pluralism in the USSR since the war. In particular, it clashed with the proclamation of independence (March 1990) of the Supreme Soviet local and with the guidelines of the Soviet central authorities, which promoted as a reaction a “creeping” military occupation and an embargo with economic sanctions that led to the temporary suspension of the declaration of sovereignty. Meanwhile, in the first half of 1991, the military interventions of the special troops stationed in Vilnius multiplied and in March the Republic refused to participate in the referendum on the Treaty of the Union.

In August of the same year, the attempted coup d’etat in Moscow indirectly accelerated the process of acquiring independence. The vacuum of Soviet power and the support of international diplomacy allowed Lithuanian institutions to proclaim the definitive disengagement from previous state forms as a gesture of outright opposition to the impending restoration project. The support given in this way to the cause of the legitimate Soviet president thus allowed Lithuania, with the coup thwarted, to obtain recognition of full sovereignty from the newly created Federal State Council (6 September 1991). Formal diplomatic relations with many countries were therefore quickly re-established and applications were made for admission to major international organizations (on 17 September 1991 Lithuania joined the The support given in this way to the cause of the legitimate Soviet president thus allowed Lithuania, with the coup thwarted, to obtain recognition of full sovereignty from the newly created Federal State Council (6 September 1991). Formal diplomatic relations with many countries were therefore quickly re-established and applications were made for admission to major international organizations (on 17 September 1991 Lithuania joined the The support given in this way to the cause of the legitimate Soviet president thus allowed Lithuania, with the coup thwarted, to obtain recognition of full sovereignty from the newly created Federal State Council (6 September 1991). Formal diplomatic relations with many countries were therefore quickly re-established and applications were made for admission to major international organizations (on 17 September 1991 Lithuania joined the UN), while the Baltic Council, the consultative body born in 1934, was re-established. The first political elections since independence, held at the end of 1992, recorded the victory of the former communists grouped in the Democratic Labor Party (PDL), whose leader, Algirdas Brazauskas, was then elected, in February 1993, president of the Republic, taking over from Vytautas Landsbergis, appointed in March 1990, after having led with his movement, Sajudis, the country towards the break with the USSR. At the same time, in February 1993, another former Communist, Adolfas Slezevicius, was appointed head of the government. In the meantime, trying to maintain good relations with Russia, despite the opposition of the Moscow government to its request for membership of NATO, Lithuania continued its integration process with the West, signing, in June 1995, the association treaty with the ‘ European Union together with Estonia and Latvia. However, the results obtained in the international field were not enough to favor the government of the former Communists in the political elections of 1996, which instead saw the victory of the nationalist party and a conspicuous loss of votes by the PDL. This vote was then confirmed, in January 1998, with the election of the President of the Republic: the conservative Valdas Adamkus. At the end of 2000, the severe economic crisis had a major impact on the political elections that brought the former Communists of former President Algirdas Brazauskas back to government. At the Copenhagen summit in December 2002, Lithuania concluded negotiations for EU membership.

In the presidential elections of 2003, according to globalsciencellc, the right-wing populist, Rolandas Paksas, who beat outgoing president Valdas Adamkus, surprisingly won. In the referendum held in the same year, the population approved membership of the EU. In February 2004, the Lithuanian Parliament decided to proceed against Paksas, who was accused of violating the Constitution and of ties to the Russian mafia, and in April dismissed him, entrusting him with the post of president interim to the President of the Parliament, Arturas Paulauskas. In March the country joined NATO and in May he joined the European Union, while in June the independent Valdas Adamkus was elected president. The Labor Party asserted itself in the October general elections and in November the Parliament ratified the European Constitution. Political elections were held in October 2006 and won by the populists with 19.5% of the votes. With the country hit by high inflation and the energy problem, in the 2008 elections the Lithuanians voted for the opposition party Unione della Patria, a formation led by Andrius Kubilius, the new political force National Resurrection Party and the party of the former president Paksas, Order and Law. In July 2009 the new president of the republic Dalia Grybauskaitė took office, elected in May with over 68% of the votes. At the end of the year, under an EU directive, it closed the old Ignalina nuclear power plant, the only one in the country. In 2012 the center-left opposition won the political elections and Algirdas Butkevicius became prime minister; in 2014, President Grybauskaitė was reconfirmed.

Lithuania Modern History