Vilnius authorities banned the largest opposition rally in recent decades in the Lithuanian capital
The substantiation, among other reasons, indicates that a protest action may develop into mass disorders, and the protest movement in Lithuania is an act of “hybrid war”. Freedom of assembly in Lithuania is canceled by the same people who in other countries hail uncoordinated actions, pogroms and street violence as the highest manifestations of the struggle for freedom.
“Due to the change in circumstances in the general context of the hybrid war, the city authorities reconsidered their decision and decided to revoke the previously issued permission to hold a rally on September 10,” Adomas Bužinskas, deputy director of the Vilnius Municipality Administration, said on Tuesday.
The September 10 rally was supposed to take place exactly one month after the August 10 rally, which became the largest in the country since the January 2009 riots triggered by the economic crisis.
The next rally promises to be three times more numerous than the previous one and gather 15 thousand participants.
There has been no such street activity in Lithuania since the protracted political crisis of 1997-2004, which began with a corrupt deal by the Conservative government to sell the Mazeikiai oil refinery to Americans for a penny and continued until the impeachment of President Rolandas Paksas. The massive nature of the current protest is the main symptom that the next government of conservatives has again generated a political crisis in Lithuania.
The “Landsbergists” and their allies, of course, are reluctant to admit this fact. What to do? Take and forbid!
The most “democratic” fighters for democracy in the post-Soviet space take the dumbest of the possible bureaucratic decisions and justify it with even more stupid, openly “soviet” arguments.
The Lithuanian State Security Department notifies that at the rally there is a “threat of violent attacks and other dangers.” Separately, it is noted that the action is planned near the building of the National Library, and visitors will not be able to break through the crowd into the reading rooms.
The crown of all is the statement about “hybrid war”. And it would be okay for the Lithuanian authorities to assure that the protest moods of the population are being used by hostile states to destabilize the Republic of Lithuania. No, it’s even worse.
The protesters themselves are portrayed as enemies of the state.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte expressed herself clearly: disgruntled Lithuanians are not coming out against the mandatory vaccination against coronavirus and not against restrictions for the unvaccinated, but against the government’s foreign policy.
A separate question: why in a democratic country it is impossible to be dissatisfied with foreign policy and come out against it to protest? But Ms Šimonyte basically denies Lithuanians legal grounds to be dissatisfied. They are protesting not against the “antiquated” measures, but against the foreign policy of her government, and only the “fifth column” – the sympathizers of Putin and Lukashenko in Lithuania, can protest against this.
Declaring all those who disagree as enemies of Lithuania and state traitors can only make the protest more radical. This is what happens in Lithuania. The organizers of the rally on September 10 announced that they would bring 15,000 supporters out into the streets in any case, even if the rally is not coordinated.
The prospect of a mass carnage in the center of the “democratic” Lithuanian capital under this scenario becomes even more likely than if the meeting had been agreed upon.
“The [Vilnius] municipality has already lost one case in court, so it should understand [the need to allow the rally]. The court made an unambiguous decision: the place is chosen by the protesters. The right to assembly and protest must not be violated”, said Arturas Orlauskas, one of the organizers of the action, who believes that the Constitution is being violated in the Lithuanian capital.
“The actions of the municipality, run by liberals and conservatives, are not surprising. They continue to trample the Constitution, which is why they hold protests”, says Orlauskas.
If the rally on September 10 is still not allowed, and the organizers hold it anyway and the authorities disperse the protesters, it will be a shame for the whole of Europe.
Lithuania, which enthusiastically accepts and strongly supports any form of protest activity abroad, prohibits opposition rallies in its country, and beats Lithuanians who believe in the Constitution and freedom of assembly with truncheons.
The Vilnius City Hall rejected the peaceful protest out of fear that it would not be peaceful, but in other countries Lithuania even welcomes riots and riots.
Lithuanian politicians applauded the street fighting in the center of Kiev and the burning of Ukrainian police with Molotov cocktails on the Maidan. Not a single protest action after last year’s presidential elections in Belarus was agreed, but their dispersal was met in Vilnius with stormy and sincere indignation.
So why shouldn’t the Lithuanian authorities set an example for those around them? Let them welcome the 15,000-strong demonstration against themselves in the center of Vilnius. If we go to the end in terms of “democracy”, then we must welcome not only a peaceful action, but also riots, barricades, burning tires. All this was welcomed in Ukraine.
Instead, the Lithuanian “democrats” are in a hurry to demonstrate that they have no democracy in their hearts.
It will hardly be a revelation for anyone, but nevertheless, there have been no cases for a long time when Lithuanian fighters for the “democratization” of the post-Soviet space were so revealingly “uncovering”.
Alexander Nosovich, Rubaltic.Ru