"Premature shaping of a coalition has had negative influence on the opinion about the next Seimas. All week messages were in the headlines how ’none of them can agree’. There had been painful lessons, 8 years ago, how getting up on the winner’s podium after the first round ended in the opposite outcome and this should not be ignored," Čmilytė-Nielsen wrote on social network Facebook on Monday.
According to her, the week after the first round of 2024 elections to the Seimas was very chaotic. She stresses that the next parliament will be more fragmented than the current one, which means that predictions about the composition of the next government may be unreliable at this stage.
Furthermore, the Liberal Movement’s leader noted that her party is not striving to be part of the government at whatever the cost. "Our rational, calm and reasoned voice in the Seimas will be more important than before," she added.
The politician added that the Liberal Movement has a clear stance regarding the predictability of the taxation policy, promotion of economic growth, continuity of priorities in defence and foreign policy, and attention to the human rights agenda.
Earlier, Čmilytė-Nielsen stated that the Liberal Movement would not join a coalition with the Nemunas Dawn, whose leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis has become notorious for his antisemitic statements, or with the Farmers and Greens party (LVŽS), due to differences in their election programmes.
Lithuania will hold the second round of 2024 elections to the Seimas on 27 October. As many as 63 out of 141 MPs are yet to be elected in single-member constituencies.