Lithuania’s presidential election: Stunt man wins

Date: 11/01/03

A surprise defeat for Lithuania's establishment politicians is healthy

TIME was when having a sharp English-speaking president was a big plus for a small ex-communist country wanting to join the continent's best clubs. Now it matters a lot less. So last week's run-off presidential election in Lithuania, where the emigre incumbent, Valdas Adamkus, lost to Rolandas Paksas, a home-grown populist challenger, will not do much damage to the country's foreign policy. Like its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania has been invited into NATO, and is also heading for membership of the EU.

Other aspects of the election counted for more. For all his integrity and sophistication, Mr Adamkus, once a civil servant in Chicago, had been ineffective at home. He looked tired and was often ill; his team was weak. His anti-corruption chief - a presidential appointment - was a particular disappointment. His defeat is a salutary shock for the country's complacent and inward-looking political elite, which backed him solidly.

Mr Paksas' slick, well-financed campaign focused on poverty, corruption and bad government. He drew a lot of support from Lithuania's large rural population, which has done poorly in the past ten years, by promising higher pensions and lower taxes - no matter that they are the government's responsibility, not the president's. Mr Paksas was a competent mayor of Vilnius, the capital, and served twice as prime minister, both times to little effect.

His main claim to fame is stunt-piloting, a skill he displayed eagerly in the campaign, on one occasion flying under a Vilnius bridge. It will be hard for him to wow foreign audiences, though. His only fluent foreign language is Russian, and he lacks the intellect of his colleagues in next-door countries, such as Latvia's steely Vaira Vike-Freiberga or Poland's suave Alexander Kwasniewski.

His team looks flaky too. His biggest declared financial backer was a helicopter company, maybe Russian-owned, that has been accused of selling to Sudan in defiance of international sanctions (though the company says it has broken no Lithuanian law). And there are the usual rumours of Russian money sloshing around Lithuanian politics. But now that the country's biggest industrial installation, an oil refinery, is in Russian hands, the arguments about who should own what have rather died down.

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