Algirdas Brazauskas
Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas ( listen / i;? Born September 22, 1932 in Rokiškis, Lithuania, † June 26, 2010 in Vilnius ) was a Lithuanian politician. He was president and last Prime Minister of his home country.
Career in the Soviet Union
Algirdas Brazauskas came from a family of civil servants in the small town Rokiškis in northern Lithuania. After graduating from middle school in Kaišiadorys near Kaunas in 1951 he began his studies of hydraulic engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Kaunas (now Kaunas University of Technology ). In 1956 he graduated as engineer.
Subsequently, he worked in various positions for the government of the Lithuanian SSR and the Communist Party. From 1965 he was in the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet of Ministers of building materials and from 1967 Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee. In the 1980s he was a Central Committee secretary for industry and in this capacity also responsible for energy issues. At the protests against the expansion of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, he gained a reputation as a reformer and Moscow - critical politician.
Struggle for independence in 1989/90
In October 1988, he was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania (KPL ). Under his leadership, the party replaced in December 1989 by the CPSU, gave the monopoly on power up and walked to the Social Democratic Party Lietuvos demokratinė darbo partija ( LDDP, German Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party ). Brazauskas was elected at the founding congress in December 1990 as its chairman and was able to secure their dominance in the politics of independent Lithuania. To date, the now firmierende as LSDP party is one of the most representative parties of Lithuania.
He is one of 124 signatories of Lithuanian independence declaration of March 1990 and was deputy prime minister of the first government under Casimire PRUNSKIENE ( March 1990 - January 1991) from the beginning one of the leading figures of the independent Lithuania.
President of independent Lithuania
After the elections of 1992 he was President of the Parliament and, as such, Acting President (succeeding Vytautas Landsbergis, the leader of the independence movement Sąjūdis and committed anti-Communists ). In February 1993, the Lithuanians elected him with 60 % of the votes cast for president of Lithuania. Brazauskas held that post until February 1998. After he had decided not to run again, he was replaced by Valdas Adamkus.
Prime Minister of Lithuania
In January 2001 he was elected Chairman of the products resulting from the merger of LDDP and the old, established in 1896 the Social Democratic Party Lithuanian Social Democratic Party ( Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija / LSDP ). Shortly thereafter, in July 2001, he also took over the premiership after the conservative-liberal coalition had lost its majority in parliament under Rolandas Paksas after a few months reign. The following coalition of the Social Democratic Party and New Union / Social Liberals ( Naujoji Sąjunga ( Socialliberalai ) ) under Parliament President Artūras Paulauskas ruled with a comfortable majority and brought a period of political stability, which coincided with a very positive economic development and most recently the accession to NATO and the EU ( spring 2004).
Despite this generally positive (economic) development and its (relatively) high popularity had the government coalition, which is before the parliamentary elections in October 2004 on the electoral coalition " Working for Lithuania " ( " Uz darba Lietuvai !") Had joined forces, a bitter defeat plug it in and fell behind the newly formed Working Party ( Darbo partija ) of the entrepreneur Viktor Uspaskich back. Nevertheless, we succeeded Brazauskas, his party (or his electoral alliance ) the continued participation in the government and continue to secure himself the office of the Prime Minister in November 2004 in a coalition with the Labor Party.
On 1 June 2006 Brazauskas handed the President a the resignation of the government, after there had been disagreements with the coalition partner Labour Party over the selection of new ministers from its ranks. In March 2006, the government majority was lost through the outlet of the New Union, it was also the beginning of May came to the fraction outlet of seven members of the working party. The government could thus its majority in parliament no longer be safe. On the same day, President Valdas Adamkus confirmed the previous Finance Minister Zigmantas Balčytis as provisional prime minister until a new government.
Criticism
After the 2004 election, he was always the target of critics who accused him of being a political turncoat. So Brazauskas warned of the Labor Party and played it down as populist, but he made after the election with her a coalition. These Brazauskas now said: " If we start now, to count, who, when, who said what, we never come to a coalition. "
Brazauskas knew how to show themselves as solicitous father of his country (whether as president or prime minister ). , Who gave himself for the good of the country always open on all sides His brawny, often hemdsärmliges occurrence - Brazauskas hunting is an often seen image - could be considered as close to the people it into the population. However, the twists and scandals of recent (government) years his popularity hurt.
Personal
Algirdas Brazauskas was married since 2002 to his second wife Kristina Brazauskienė, had two daughters from his first marriage with Julija Brazauskienė and five grandchildren. After his death, the Lithuanian Catholic Church refused under the leadership of Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevičius the usual lying in state of the ex-president during the Holy Mass in the Cathedral of Vilnius because of his way of life and his membership of the Communist Party.
Algirdas Brazauskas - Middle School
In Kaišiadorys was in 2000, the middle school, at the Brazauskas was completed in 1951, renamed " Algirdas Brazauskas - Middle School ". This change of name was in Soviet times, even in the cities were named after Communist Party leaders ( Kapsukas Snieckus ), not without controversy, due to the earlier practice.