The first round of Seimas elections was held in Lithuania. China-EU relations strain in trade / LR1 / / Latvijas Radio

The first round of parliamentary elections in Lithuania has come to an end. The relationship between China and the European Union continues to grow, especially in the area of ​​trade. Meeting of regional leaders in Turkmenistan.

The foreign policy reporter of the newspaper “Diena” analyzes current events Andis SedlenieksSecretary General of the Latvian Transatlantic Organization Sigita Struberga. We are communicating with TV journalists from Latvia Paula Koshkina and head of RSU’s Political Science doctoral program, director of the China Studies Center, director of the Asia Program at the Latvian Institute of Foreign Policy Una Aleksandras Berzyn-Cherenkova.

Lithuania turning left

After the first round of Seimas elections in Lithuania held on October 13, it is clear that the opinion polls have not been lying and our neighboring country is waiting for a change in governing powers and a more or less revolution in politics. The decisive leadership positions won by the conservative party Fatherland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats in the 2020 elections began to decline soon after the elections, and around the middle of 2021, the ruling conservatives were overtaken in popularity by the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. The smaller partners in the coalition led by Prime Minister Ingrīda Šimonīte – the Liberal Movement and the Freedom Party – did not succeed either. At the same time, the rating of the Union of Farmers and Greens continued to fall until 2020, and if this party was still in second place, in the middle of 2022 – only fourth place. The political capital lost to these parties was not only to the Social Democrats, but also to the center-left party Democratic Union “For Lithuania!” founded by former Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis at the beginning of 2022.

Finally, at the beginning of this year, another force appeared on the Lithuanian political scene – the party Nemunas Dawn, which describes itself as leftist, liberal and Christian, but most political observers define it as a populist nationalist. After a rapid increase in popularity in the spring, which was likely to be achieved by attracting the voters who were previously politically, on the eve of the elections “Nemunas rytasma” it was already unpleasantly serving the heads of the ruling guardians.

Lithuania’s electoral system is mixed. 70 out of 141 members of the Seimas are elected by proportional voting, while the other seventy-one are elected in single-member constituencies. In the first round, the order in these areas is won by the candidate who voted for more than half of those who voted, which is not less than a fifth of the registered voters. There are eight such districts this time, so 78 people’s representatives were elected after the first round – 20 social democrats, 18 from “Tēvzemes saivībena”, 15 from “Nemunas rytasusmas”, eight from “Par Lithuania! ”, eight people from the liberal movement, two from the party “Election campaign of Lithuanian Poles” and one independent deputy. The fate of the remaining 63 orders will be decided in the second round on October 27.

It is thought that this round will barely save the ruling Tories from losing, because after the first round they are almost two thirds behind their performance in the previous election. The same can be said about the “farmers and greens”, whose output looks terrible at the moment – only six orders were received, or about a fifth of those collected in the previous election. The leader of the Social Democrats, Vilija Blinkevičiute, has already announced that the calls of the conservative leader Gabrielias Landsbergis to create a broad rainbow coalition, without allowing “Nemunas Dawn” to enter the power, already tired of her – a coalition with the conservative Social Democrats. is unbelievable. However, the combination of social democracy and centrists “Par Lithuania” stands out as the heart of the next possible coalition.

“Literature lover” meeting.

This year, Turkmenistan is celebrating 300 years since the birth of the great writer, the poet Mahtimguli. In this literary-historical connection, last weekend in Ashgabat, a very representative group of regional leaders gathered for a meeting. The leader of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedov, was honored by the recently elected president of Iran, Masud Pezeshkian, the president of Kazakhstan, Kasimjomart Tokayev, the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadir Dzhparov, the president of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon , the president of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and the president of Armenia, Vahagn Khachaturyan. And, as it happened, where it was not – that is, accidentally – the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, also landed in Ashgabad. Speaking at the opening of the forum, he announced that Russia is now building a “new world order” and gathering around itself a community of countries against the West.

Therefore, the meeting of the Kremlin host, who was not part of the main program, with his Iranian counterpart Pezeshkian was the most important event of the meeting, which marked another conflict between these two rounds of the new world- modern. The two leaders proposed cooperation, which, according to the Iranian leader, is strengthening every day both economically and culturally. As is known, one of the most striking manifestations of these “economic and cultural” ties is the “Fath 360” short-range ballistic missiles that Iran gave to Russia.

The Ashgabat meeting is considered a prelude to agreements that could be concluded at the “BRICS” summit, which the Russian-led country will host in Kazan next week. Unlike this gathering of “lovers of literature”, where Putin could feel like a central figure, such global pressures as Chinese leader Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present in the main town of Tatarstan.

Electric car and cognac on grain in the trade war

Since last week, media headlines have been calling for an almost inevitable trade war between the European Union and China. It all started with the fact that the European Council, last Friday, agreed with a majority vote to impose additional customs duties on electric cars imported from China. The Union sees Chinese subsidies as unfair competition for this industry, which is actively pushing its products into the relatively saturated European market. As of 2020, the market share of Chinese electric cars sold in the European Union has grown from less than 4% to 25%. Germany, whose car industry companies produce part of their products in China, as well as Hungary, which has traditionally acted as an agent for Beijing’s interests in Europe, voted against the controls. union bonds.

China, of course, called the union’s actions unacceptable protectionism and a few days later came up with a countermeasure – imposing import duties on cognac and brandy produced in Europe , exposing the Chinese market to dumping. The European Union, in turn, is going to challenge this Chinese decision in the World Trade Organization. Chinese producers have already said that European meat production and cars with high-powered gasoline engines could benefit from their applications. According to experts, electric cars and cognac are a cobweb that has slipped out of the bag of economic relations between Europe and China. In recent years, China has decreased in domestic market demand and, therefore, transfers production without demand to the foreign market. Exports to the European Union have reached an all-time high, as has the union’s negative trade balance with the Asian superpower.

Europe is flooded not only with Chinese electric cars, but also with batteries and solar panels, wind turbines, steel, chips of older modifications and other products. Efforts by the Chinese government to boost domestic consumption have so far not yielded results. Currently, the negotiation process is underway between representatives from Brussels and Beijing with the aim of agreeing on the minimum level of prices for Chinese products and thus avoiding too aggressive competition that ‘ threat of a trade war. Both technical expert consultations and meetings were held between Economic Affairs Commissioner Valdi Dombrovski and Chinese Trade Minister Wang Wentiao.

Prepared by Eduards Liniņš.