The positions of far-right forces in the Baltics show the differences between these countries. Looking at them as one whole turns out to be a simplification, making it difficult to understand the internal specifics of each nation. Read our article series on the different approaches, successes and failures of far-right forces in these countries.
The main result of EP elections in Lithuania could be summed up as a pro-EU anti right-wing populism victory. None of the anti-EU agencies got any seats in the EU parliament. The very high turnout (53.08%) was a result of the second round of very popular Presidential election, but also of...
Elections 2014
1. The elections to the European Parliament are subject to a 5% threshold. The parties submit electoral lists, but the voters must select and vote for an individual candidate.
2. This year’s elections to the European Parliament were mainly dominated (besides the domestic issues) by...
Elections 2014
1. This year’s elections to the European Parliament were held together with the runoff presidential elections. This resulted in a much higher voter turnout of 47%, compared to 20.5% in 2009.
A 5% threshold applies, and seats are awarded by proportional representation.
2. Besides...
DEMOS Institute of Critical Thought, supported by transform! europe, has launched the first issue of its magazine Lūžis (Fracture). Lūžis is one of the rare left-wing magazines in Lithuania edited by progressive academics, political activists and trade unionists from Vilnius and Kaunas.
The old Grand Duchy of Lithuania was variously described and compared to classic Arcadia, with its bucolic, rustic landscapes and woods, and the supposed tranquillity of its agrarian population. These rhetorical traditions persisted into modern nationalism, including the idea of Arcadian naivety and...
When thinking about the situation of feminism in Lithuania, the film Kramer vs. Kramer springs to mind. Or, perhaps it would be better to say that what arises is discussion within feminist circles about this film, decades after it was first seen on the screen.
Eva Brenner in conversation with the Lithuanian scientists and activists Andrius Bielskis and Jolanta Bilskiene, co-founders of DEMOS Institute of Critical Thought.
Mit der Unabhängigkeitserklärung Estlands 1991 setzte die politische Elite des Landes alles daran, die russische Minderheit aus der Regierung auszuschließen, was eine massive Beschneidung ihrer Bürger_innenrechte zur Folge hatte. Die estnische Linke braucht in ihrem Kampf um Gleichberechtigung dringend die Unterstützung der Europäischen Linken.
Against the backdrop of the current rise in neo-nationalism and the growing xenophobia in the EU and across the Atlantic, one could say that the recent Lithuanian elections, which ended on 23 October, almost seemed to pass with bucolic tranquility. But it is a prelude to yet another phase of a deepening post-democratic crisis affecting national democracies without a politically mobilized precariat in the region.
For the first time ever in the post-soviet area, a person is threatened with 1 year in prison just for questionining one version of one historical event. The freedom of speech is at stake in Lithuania, a NATO and EU member state. Authorities in Lithuania are politically persecuting journalist, human...