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Roundup: Leadership of Lithuanian Liberal Movement reshuffles

Xinhua, May 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

The acting leader of Lithuania's Liberal Movement party, Antanas Guoga, decided to leave the party on Tuesday after facing criticism from his party members, only one week after assuming the post.

"I've made a hard decision to leave the Liberal Movement," Guoga, entrepreneur and former professional poker player, announced on social media.

"I've already sent my request to resign to the party's department and the board," he wrote.

On Tuesday, Guoga said he would vote for the conservatives during the parliamentary elections later this fall.

Guoga took over the leadership of the party last week after the party's former leader Eligijus Masiulis resigned following a bribery investigation.

During his brief leadership, Guoga had made public statements that angered his party members. In recent days, Guoga pledged to initiate an internal audit of the party due to a corruption scandal which has stained the party's image. His fellow party members accused Guoga of populism and urged the leaders of the party to expel him.

Meanwhile, Vilnius mayor Remigijus Simasius announced on Tuesday he would run for party leader in the party's internal elections in June.

"I'll run for leader of the Liberal Movement because I feel responsibility in front of my party fellows and all the people supporting us," he told a press conference.

He apologized for the party's involvement in a corruption scandal just before the parliamentary elections and vowed to regain voters' trust.

Since Simasius is to remain the mayor of Vilnius, the party's vice chairman Eugenijus Gentvilas decided to lead the party's candidate list during the parliamentary elections.

Prior to the bribery investigation against the former leader Masiulis, the Liberal Movement was the second most popular party in the country after the ruling Social Democratic Party, according to the most recent survey from Spinter tyrimai.

Last week, Lithuania's special investigation service (STT) launched a probing into alleged large-scale corruption involving Masiulis and one of the country's largest business conglomerates MG Baltic.

According to STT data, representatives of a local business offered a bribe of around 100,000 euros (113,000 U.S. dollars) to Masiulis.

Masiulis resigned from the party's leadership post and suspended his membership after STT released the information. Endit