Kazimira PrunskienÄ—
Casimire ( officially: Kazimira ) (? Listen / i ) Danute PRUNSKIENE ( born February 26, 1943 in Vasiuliškai near Švenčioniai ) is a Lithuanian politician. She is a former Prime Minister of Lithuania and was in the 2004 presidential election against candidate of Valdas Adamkus.
- 3.1 Notes and references
Biography
Youth and berufl career in the Soviet Union
Prunskienės father was killed as a member of the initiated in June 1940 the Lithuanian uprising against the Soviet occupation by the Russian secret service NKVD ( forerunner of the KGB) in 1943 so that she grew up fatherless.
In 1965 she made her cum laude degree from the University of Vilnius. Until 1986, she taught ibid. In 1971 she started her Ph.D. in Economics, in 1986 she received her doctorate. 1982-83, 1986 and later she worked as a research assistant and Humboldt Fellow in Germany. From 1965 to 1986 she taught at the Faculty of Economy of Vilniaus universitetas and from 1996 to 2001 at the Vilnius Gediminas technikos universitetas, Professor. 1986-88 she worked at the Lithuanian Institute of Agricultural Science.
Political career
Member of the independence movement and the first Prime Minister of Lithuania 1990
In the active policy PRUNSKIENE increased in 1988, as one of the initiators of the independence movement Sąjūdis. She was also involved in the signing of the deed to the " restoration of the independence of the Lithuanian state." At the same time KP member, it was founded in 1989 Deputy Prime Minister of the Lithuanian SSR.
1990-92 she was Member of the Provisional National Council ( the now again called Seimas ). 1990-91 PRUNSKIENE was the first Prime Minister of the newly independent Lithuania. On January 7, 1991 of its Government filed after violent protests in the population against massive price increases for staple foods after just 10 months reign of the resignation.
This was shortly before the bloody assaults Russian (special ) forces on 13 January 1991 ( Vilnius Bloody Sunday ), in a time when the Soviet leadership had fueled the sentiment against the government of Lithuania. PRUNSKIENE but also had little support in parliament ( opponent: Vytautas Landsbergis ), which they accused of a too soft attitude towards Moscow and in which time and again circulated the rumor that she had worked for the KGB.
Even before gaining independence in 1990 met PRUNSKIENE the reigning U.S. President George Bush, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President François Mitterrand. Following these meetings, Mikhail Gorbachev was forced to comment on the topic of Lithuania. In the same year she was honored in Rome because of the successful re- establishment of Lithuania's independence with the Minerva Award.
Political career after 1991
1995 was PRUNSKIENE founder and chairman of the Lithuanian Women's Party, which later became New Democracy - Women's Party ( Naujoji demokratija - Moterų partija ). In 2000 she was awarded the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas stage II and the Independence Medal.
Since 2001 PRUNSKIENE was president of the Association of the parties of the peasants and the New Democracy ( Valstiečių ir Naujosios demokratijos partijų sąjunga ), which in 2005 in Lithuanian peasants and People's Union ( Lietuvos Valstiečių liaudininkų sąjunga ) has been renamed. In 2001, Mrs. PRUNSKIENE was honored for special merits to the German Grand Federal Cross of Merit with Star.
In 2004, she stepped up to the presidential election. Surprisingly it arrived with the second best result in the runoff election votes against the hot favorites Valdas Adamkus on June 27, the output until late in the evening was controversial. Ultimately, they received 47.8 % of the vote in a low turnout, however, of just over 50%. Many of the voices can be seen as a protest against the impeachment Rolandas Paksas '. Similar Paksas also Prunskienės party is one of the defenders of the rights of the little man. Their voices, it achieved above all in the poor rural, from the economic boom of the last few years almost untouched areas in the north and east of Lithuania and the Polish minority in Vilnius.
Similar to Paksas, the rumor was during the election campaign variously loud, their candidature will support in the background of Russia and actively promoted. Also the rumor about a former KGB activity in 2003 was come up again. PRUNSKIENE who has always denied these allegations vigorously, could carry off a victory in court here.
In the coalition government that was formed in November 2004 by the Social Democrats, the Labour Party and New Democracy, she received the Ministry of Agriculture. Even under the new Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas ( from July 2006), she kept the Department of Agriculture until 2008.
In the parliamentary elections in October 2008, she missed the runoff election in their direct mandate from 2004 Moletai - Švenčioniai circle. In addition, their party LVLS not make the 5 % threshold and is no longer represented in the government. Politically weakened refrained from these defeats PRUNSKIENE the Congress Party 7 March 2009 to take up his candidacy for re-election as party leader, after several days previously announced, one more time in the presidential election ( in May 2009). They based their waiver also trying to want to be perceived as an independent candidate - in fact was their defeat by the fact that board elections had been scheduled for the Congress party ever, become foreseeable. Successor as party chairman was her rival, the founder of the first Lietuvos Valstiečių partija, Ramūnas Karbauskis.