New Seimas’ Speaker was elected
Posted by editor on 9/17/09 • Categorized as Politics • 
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Irena Degutiene, the Conservative was elected as the Parliamentary Speaker today.
87 MPs voted in favour of her candidacy and 48 against. Degutiene is the first female Speaker in Seimas’ history.
The Parliamentary Speaker’s chair was vacant since15 September, when Mr Valinskas was voted out. Degutiene was the only candidate for the post. The opposition factions did not offer alternative but Social Democrats and Order and Justice factions voted against Degutiene.
Nevertheless, the opposition Labour faction, which consists of 10 MPs, voted in favour of Degutiene. This could be a sign that a new Seimas coalition majority is forming, since the coalition partner United Lithuania faction declared that it is formally does not belong to the coalition any longer, since the written agreement has expired. The United Lithuania informed that they will vote freely.
The United Lithuania elderly Dinius announced on LNK and Ziniu Radijas that his faction does not belong to the coalition, but is not part of the opposition either. ‘We are in the centre, somewhere’. However, the LNK has also informed that according to its unofficial sources in the United Lithuania faction it is on the brink of split, because MP Stoma and four other members of the faction might leave the faction soon.
Overall Degutiene was widely praised as the best possible choice for the post by the ruling coalition and the opposition. She is respected by the both sides and by media. Degutiene is 60, medic by education, has worked in Seimas four terms. In 1996-2000 Degutiene was the Social Security and Labour Minister under three different Cabinets. She also was an acting prime minister during the months of May-June and October-November in year 1999.
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