Hi Lithuania,

I am a PhD student in political science, and currently working on a project involving a survey of voters in all EU member states during the 2019 European Parliament election. The survey does also contain a question on how people voted at their last national election, which for Lithuania would be the 2016 general election, and my question does concern that election. The aim of the project is to identify right-wing populist or far-right voters and find traits that distinguish them from the rest of the electorate, which in turn requires labeling parties or coalitions as being right-wing populist/far-right or not.

The problem I have is that either the [2016 Lithuanian parliamentary election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Lithuanian_parliamentary_election) Wiki page or my survey documentation must contain an error. I’m hoping you guys can help me figure out which it is. Going by the Wiki page, there were two anti-corruption coalitions that contested the election: the “Against Corruption and Poverty” by Young Lithuania (*Jaunoji Lietuva)* and the Lithuanian Nationalist Union (*Lietuvių tautininkų ir respublikonų sąjunga)*, and then the “Anti-corruption coalition” of the People and Justice Union (*Tautos ir teisingumo sąjunga* ) and the Lithuanian Pensioner’s Party (can’t find a translation). So far so good, and among the two it is the first one that could reasonably be classified as right-wing populist or far-right, I think.

In the survey documentation, however, there is only one entry with the following description:

>”S. Buškevičiaus ir Tautininkų koalicija „Prieš korupciją ir skurdą” (Partija „Jaunoji Lietuva”, Tautininkų s / Anti-corruption coalition of Kristupas Krivickas and Naglis Puteikis

As far as I understand the Lithuanian bit, it references the two parties in the “Against corruption and poverty” coalition, while Krivickas and Puteikis are leaders of the People and Justice Union and the Pensioner’s Party. That would mean that the survey designers got confused between the two coalitions and lumped then in one category. I think that’s more likely than an error that went unspotted on Wiki for years, but could you guys confirm? If I’m right, I’d have to leave them out of the analysis…

Thanks a lot!

2 comments

  1. I really can’t help much, but these are extremely small and unpopular parties. Usually they understand there is no chance to reach 5per cent of all votes, which is required to get to Seimas, so it’s possible they could have joined their ranks just before the election.
    In my mind, Jaunoji Lietuva is actual far right party; however, it’s nearly obsolete.
    Pensininkų partija – the party of retirees – I don’t know much about them; their leader often goes to various talk shows to complain about the living conditions of retired people.
    Tvarka ir Teisingumas would be one of more mainstream parties that is flirting with right wing ideology.

  2. > Krivickas and Puteikis are leaders of the People and Justice Union and the Pensioner’s Party

    Krivickas and Puteikis are an inseparable pair and IIRC were party mates in Tautos ir teisingumo sąjunga / Centro partija. Neither of them is a member of Pensininkų partija. In fact I don’t recall Pensininkų partija being a major factor in that coalition at all, I imagine they (Pensioner’s party) were just hoping to ride whatever coattails left by Puteikis&Krivickas (not that there were any.)

    What I think is happening is that your survey is basically just missing some punctuation (and then text, bolded). What is probably meant is:

    * “S. Buškevičiaus ir Tautininkų koalicija „Prieš korupciją ir skurdą” (Partija „Jaunoji Lietuva“, Tautininkų s**ąjunga**)
    * “Anti-corruption coalition of Kristupas Krivickas and Naglis Puteikis” **(Centro partija, Pensininkų partija)**

    Which is then consistent with Wikipedia.

    —

    As for how the parties lean… I can’t say anything about Tautininkai or Pensininkai as both are obscure af, but I interpret both Jaunoji Lietuva and Centro Partija as far-right populist trash.

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