Lithuania today votes to choose its President of the Republic, in a race overshadowed by the specter of Russia. Which seems to bring the three main candidates running out of seven into agreement – otherwise divided on economic and social policies – on the need for the small Baltic country of 2.8 million inhabitants, a former Soviet republic and now a member of NATO and the EU , increases its military spending to counter the threat of its aggressive neighbor, of which it fears being the next possible victim after Ukraine. The outgoing president, the 59-year-old independent, economist and former banker Gitanas Nauseda, is firmly in the lead in the polls, although unable to exceed the 50% that would allow avoiding the May 26 runoff, over his closest rivals, the centrist prime minister. Ingrida Simonyte, who already challenged the outgoing president in 2019, and the conservative lawyer Ignas Vagele. A fervent supporter of Kiev, Lithuania currently spends 2.75% of its GDP on defense and Prime Minister Simonyte, an economic conservative with a liberal vision on social issues, intends to announce an increase in military spending to 3% of GDP and to increase the armored forces and air defenses of the country, which is expected to host a brigade of German soldiers within NATO. The latter are plans that none of the three leading candidates are questioning, even if Vagele, who in the past opposed the mandatory vaccination against Covid, promised that he would subject them to an examination of sustainability and financial coverage. According to polls, “Simonyte is supported by conservative voters but also by supporters of civil liberties, while Nauseda enjoys more left-wing sympathies in terms of social and economic policies,” according to Ramunas Vilpisauskas, a political analyst at the University of Vinius. The polls will close at 7pm, Italian time.
2024-05-12 10:59:21
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