Lithuania has never been as rich and strong as it is now, but it cannot afford to be divided, and challenges must be addressed before the crisis hits, President Gitanas Nausėda said in his State of the Nation address on Tuesday.
“Never before has Lithuania produced so much material wealth. Never before has the voice of modern Lithuania resonated so powerfully in the international arena. Never before has our country had so many concrete security guarantees, affirmed not only in Brussels, Washington, and Madrid but also in Vilnius,” Nausėda said in his speech delivered in the Lithuanian parliament.
Despite the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, energy prices and irregular migration, putting out fires while ignoring the root causes should not be the main focus, the president stressed.
“We need to address challenges in national security, law and order, social policy, healthcare, education, transport, and many other areas before they escalate to a critical level,” Nausėda said. “Before bridges start collapsing. Before tractors congest the streets of Vilnius. Before teachers go on protest strikes. Before judges, prosecutors or police officers leave their jobs en masse. Before those struggling to care for their loved ones resort to desperate measures.”
The Lithuanian president also stressed that “we cannot continue to artificially divide, split and sort Lithuania”.
“There can be no First, Second or Third Lithuania. We cannot dismiss entire regions or groups of people as mere deadweight. We cannot treat communication with the people of Lithuania as something reserved only for special occasions like Christmas,” he said.
‘Enough with divisions’
President Nausėda also called on politicians to focus on finding solutions.
“Whether it comes to taxes, education or national security, we must sincerely seek common denominators. We need understanding, listening and ongoing dialogue, with minimal grandstanding or backtracking,” he said.
According to Nausėda, all political forces in Lithuania must “strive for the broadest possible consensus, and voters must judge based on principles”.
“It is easy to see who is dividing society, who is making a lot of noise while undermining the foundations of key state institutions, and who is earnestly working to find the best solutions,” Nausėda noted.
“We have many important tasks ahead of us. To withstand any challenges, we must continue to strengthen our state. Pursue justice in all areas. Ensure constant and sustainable growth of well-being for all the people of Lithuania as an antidote to the forces that seek to split and divide us,” he added.
“Enough with divisions. Enough with empty intrigues and quarrels. Let’s replace distrust with trust and cooperation. Let’s move forward with new ideas and solutions,” the president stressed.
Too few soldiers
The number of professional soldiers in Lithuania is growing too slowly, which is the reason why recruitment in the military is still stagnating, President Nausėda argued.
Despite Lithuania’s achievements in the area of defence, the number of professional military service personnel has grown by only 6 percent over the past four years, he said.
“Military recruitment is slow and falls short of targets,” Nausėda said.
“We must focus even more on training the active reserve, increasing the attractiveness of professional military service and improving social guarantees for soldiers and officers," he said.
The Lithuanian military now has almost 12,000 professional military service personnel, according to the latest data from the Defence Ministry. There were almost 11,200 professional soldiers in 2020.
The country also has almost 4,000 conscripts per year, 5,400 volunteer soldiers and around 3,300 civilian employees of the national defence system.
‘Buried’ tax reform
Nausėda said he believed that the tax reform, which has not been accomplished by the current ruling coalition, could be one of the key issues in the upcoming elections campaign in autumn.
The president regretted that the current government had “buried for good” the tax reform that was prepared last year.
“It is regrettable that this government has buried the tax reform, which could have ensured greater fairness in the system and generated additional budget revenues,” Nausėda said.
“Indeed, tax reform could emerge as one of the most critical issues in the upcoming parliamentary elections,” he noted.
The package of tax changes was presented by the government a year ago, but it never reached the stage of adoption in the parliament, Seimas, due to a lack of support from the opposition and disagreements among the ruling parties themselves over the reform.
“This task is being deferred to the next parliamentary term, in an attempt to evade responsibility after four wasted years,” Nausėda said.
In the next parliamentary term, when implementing tax changes, it will be “important” for politicians “to remember that we are all playing on the same team on this issue".
Nonetheless, the president welcomed the so-called Defence Fund package, adopted by the Seimas last week, which will increase defence funding to 3 percent of GDP next year through higher taxes.
He praised the decisions to increase the corporate tax rate by 1 percentage point, to extend the temporary windfall profit tax of banks for another year, and to drop proposals to raise the rate of value-added tax to 22 percent and to more than halve the annual income threshold for self-employed individuals with business licenses.
The president said that the parliament had also taken the right decision by increasing excise duties on alcohol and tobacco to fund defence, but stressed that the Seimas had failed to reach a proper agreement on higher excise duties on fuel, which had been more difficult to get through the adoption stage.
“The parliamentary approval of excise taxes on fuel revealed a clear divide, indicating that the issue was not thoroughly debated, and the final decision was incomplete,” Nausėda argued.
The president has not yet signed the bills related to the Defence Fund.
On Tuesday, Nausėda delivered his 5th State of the Nation Address to the parliament.
The full speech is available on the Presidential Office’s website (also in English)
Under the constitution, the president has the duty “to make annual reports at the Seimas [parliament] on the situation in Lithuania and the domestic and foreign policies”.
This is Nausėda’s last State of the Nation Address during his current term in office, but he was re-elected president for another five years in May, with the term starting in July.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
