Regardless of the historians’ criticism, Audronius Azubalis is determined to see it through to the end. Since 2015, the MP from the Fatherland Union Party – Lithuanian Christian Democrats has given himself a mission: aged 66, this former Minister of Foreign Affairs wants to have the Lithuanian Communist Party (LKP) recognized as a criminal organization. , created in 1918 and dissolved upon the independence of the Baltic State in 1990.
On March 26, Audronius Azubalis won a symbolic victory, by having a majority of the Seimas (Parliament) adopt, at first reading, a bill which does not just criminalize the LKP, but wants to impose on all those who have been members to make their affiliation official, in the event of candidacy for a position of high responsibility or for an elective mandate.
“The goal is not to throw people in prison or outlaw them, assures the conservative MP. But to ensure that those concerned recognize the facts. It is then up to them to manage their conscience. » However, he hastens to add, the law does not target “ordinary members” of the Communist Party, but only its “leaders”. Too bad if most of them are dead or too old to apply for a position that would require them to confess: “I want my grandchildren to know who was responsible, who betrayed the first republic of Lithuania and who collaborated with the occupier”insists Audronius Azubalis.
“Youthful mistake”
In 2015, he had already presented a proposed resolution, adopted two years later by the Seimas, which established the responsibility of the LKP in “the genocide (…), crimes against humanity and war crimes » committed against Lithuanians during the Soviet occupation, between 1940 and 1941, then from 1944 to 1990. On May 18, 2023, deputies voted for a second resolution, this time recognizing the party’s role in mass deportations: nearly 300 000 Lithuanians were sent to Siberia or imprisoned in gulags after the Second World War.
Last year, the question of past membership in the LKP sparked debate, after a journalist revealed that the president, Gitanas Nauseda, in office since 2019, had joined the party in 1988, even though the movement The fight for independence was gaining momentum – information he had previously kept secret. Evoking “a youthful mistake” committed in the hope “to have a better chance of pursuing a career as a scientist”Mr. Nauseda assured that he had never participated in party activities.
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