The Seimas of Lithuania refused to grant the government more powers to decide when and which country's flag is appropriate to raise alongside the Lithuanian tricolor.
The review of regulations regarding the raising of foreign flags was initiated after Seimas member Ignas Vėgėlė filed three complaints with the police last year regarding the fact that the flags of a foreign state, alongside the Lithuanian tricolor, were consistently and equally displayed on the buildings of the Museum of Applied Arts and Design in Vilnius, the Migration Department, and the Amber Museum in Palanga. The identity of the foreign state is not disclosed.
According to the Seimas member, this violates the law and should result in administrative liability.
However, the police in Vilnius and Palanga terminated the initiated administrative proceedings, establishing that there were no signs of an administrative offense.
Last week, parliamentarians returned the proposed amendments to the Law on the National Flag and Other Flags to the government for further refinement.
"This project can be described as – to assist Ignas in removing the Ukrainian flag," evaluated the project by conservative Arvydas Anušauskas.
He recalled the case when, after the representative of the 'Awakening of Nyamunas' party Ignas Adomavičius became the Minister of Culture, the Ukrainian flag was removed from the Ministry of Culture's hall.
"Does this mean that after this decision is made, the Ukrainian flag displayed behind you will have to be taken down, and these Ukrainian flags on our table, as well as the Polish flags on my colleagues' tables, will have to be removed?" asked conservative Daiva Ulbinaitė.
Liberal Edita Rudėnienė raised the question of whether, according to the proposed suggestion, it would be possible to display the Ukrainian flag near municipalities and in the Seimas when there are no official delegations present. She also doubted whether it would still be permissible to raise Polish flags in areas inhabited by national minorities – in Šalčininkai and the Vilnius district.
"What has Poland done wrong before the government that they are trying to exclude the national flag of Poland from our communities and punish for raising it?" echoed her faction colleague Vitalijus Gailius.
