Lithuania’s ruling coalition ‘saved from collapse’

epa06214168 President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania speaks during the opening session of the General Debate of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 19 September 2017.  The annual gathering of world leaders formally opens 19 September 2017, with the theme, ÔFocusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet.'  EPA-EFE/JUSTIN LANE

Bloomberg

Lithuania’s ruling coalition was saved from collapse after lawmakers from its junior partner defied their own party by opting to support the 10-month-old government.
The Social Democrats’ members of parliament voted 10-4 to remain in the alliance, with one abstaining. They decried the party’s “premature” decision at the weekend to quit. The party’s foreign and justice minister had already decided to remain in the cabinet.
“There was no indication how working in opposition would be more constructive than working in the ruling coalition,” the lawmakers said Monday in a statement on the party’s website.
Political friction in the EU and NATO member came to a head, when the Social Democrats voted to leave the government after being bypassed over a forestry reform that they opposed. PM Saulius Skvernelis, whose Peasant and Greens Union holds 56 of parliament’s 141 seats, had called the move “shortsighted” and pledged to remain as head of a minority government, relying on parliamentary support from the Social Democrats’ faction under a cooperation pact.
Elections aren’t scheduled until 2020 in Lithuania, a Baltic nation of 2.9 million people. While President Dalia
Grybauskaite warned of a period of instability, the yield on Lithuania’s euro-denominated debt due 2026 was unchanged at 0.75 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

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