Lithuania cabinet doomed as PM loses presidential ballot

Bloomberg

Lithuania’s prime minister said he’d quit and fold up his minority government after he was knocked out of the euro-area member’s presidential election.
In a result that shook the Baltic state’s political landscape and may lead to a snap parliamentary ballot, the former chief economist of SEB Bank AB and a crisis-era finance minister overcame anti-elite rhetoric similar to that seen in races for this month’s EU parliamentary elections to advance to a May 26 runoff.
They fended off attacks from PM Saulius Skvernelis, who tried to cast blame on his establishment-linked rivals and the central bank for the second-highest economic inequality in the European Union.
A former policeman who runs the bloc’s only all-male cabinet, Skvernelis made the election a referendum on economic policies that resembled measures taken by populist governments in Poland and Italy, including pensions hikes and subsidies for families with children.
“I have to feel the backing of people,” Skvernelis said.
“The reforms aren’t easy and to continue you need to feel people behind you. If these policies aren’t acceptable to the people of Lithuania, it’s an assessment of me as a politician.”