The National Union of Political Parties appealed to the Prime Minister Ingrid Šimonytė to reveal in which ministry and which official tried to initiate amendments to the Law on the State Language, which would abolish the state status of the Lithuanian language. Such an appeal to the Prime Minister was initiated in response to the statements of Audrius Antanaitis, Chairman of the State Lithuanian Language Commission (VLKK), who appeared in public that the government was considering possible amendments to the laws that would abolish the state status of the Lithuanian language.
“Such an initiative of ministries and officials is an unprecedented attempt in the life of the restored Lithuanian state, using the Ukrainian tragedy and covering the pretext of aid to Ukrainian refugees, to openly and grossly violate the Constitution and must be considered a criminal anti-state destruction. Therefore, we demand that the Prime Minister take action to prevent anti-state activities and publicly disclose which ministries of the Republic of Lithuania have taken the initiative to substantially change the Law on the State Language and effectively abolish the state status of the Lithuanian language, and identify ministers and – according to a questionnaire distributed by the National Association.
On March 22, Audrys Antanaitis, the chairman of VLKK, who took part in the show “Žinių radijo”, informed that he had received correspondence from unnamed ministry officials, which tried to initiate a substantial amendment to the Law on the State Language. , it was proposed to delete the legal requirement that police, law enforcement officers and civil servants must speak the state language.
“It has been suggested that the heads of service institutions must ensure that the population who so wishes is served in the state language.” only at the request of a person – according to the explanation of A. Antanaitis, “a person seeking appeal in the official language of the Republic of Lithuania shall appeal to this right”.
The National Union points out that the restoration of the state status of the Lithuanian language was one of the most important programmatic aspirations of the Sąjūdis and the greatest achievements of the nation after the restoration of the independent state.
“The attempt of the heads of ministries and officials to initiate another narrowing of the sphere of use of the Lithuanian language must be seen as an undoubted sign that the place and functions of the Lithuanian language in the public sphere are intended to be transformed into a foreign language. “It is likely to become English, replacing the Russian or” great Lenin “language that performed this function during the occupation,” commented Prof. Vytautas Radžvilas, the chairman of the National Association.
“The implementation of these plans in the Lithuanian language, nominally remaining state-owned, would actually begin to function as in the former LSSR: it would be considered only one of the existing national languages in Lithuania and would continue to be pushed into domestic consumption; “The language of international communication” and, at best, turned into a subject of free choice, in linguistically mixed areas, the Lithuanian language would either be completely excluded from public use, or preconditions for finding tensions and ongoing conflicts on a linguistic basis would be created, “said R. Radžvilas.
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