Education and Science, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Lithuania

Virginija Baltraitiene.

"This district is relatively poor, the majority of people, apparently, depend on the local government, which is mostly composed of people with Polish nationality. We should look at how many specialists, who are competent enough to design European level projects and receive the EU funding, the municipality has. The fuss is being made about deliberate oppression, in order to cover up the shortage of specialists and inability to govern properly. If the local government worked properly, worked on projects and the development of the district, instead of politicking, then it would be more useful and more would be achieved," said Baltraitiene to the radio Ziniu Radijas on Wednesday.

According to her, in the districts where the majority of residents is Poles, people of both nationalities manage to get along rather peacefully; however, the reckless comments of the politicians create the tension. "This education law is well thought-out and reasonable.

I think, it is the politicians, not the people who create this clamors, we have not received any complaints from the Polish schools. One particular politician, Valdemar Tomasevski, is making the clamour. I do not know what he wants to achieve by doing it," said Baltraitiene, writes LETA/ELTA.

On Wednesday, the daily Respublika wrote an article in which the European Parliament member Valdemar Tomasevski was asked how people, who have poor knowledge of the Lithuanian language, should integrate into the life of Lithuania, to which Tomasevski answered: "Where to integrate? Where should we integrate to? We have lived here all the time. (...) It is you who have to integrate in this land, because it was you who came here. Your ancestors have to integrate here, not we. This is our land. Go to any old cemetery in Vilnius and you will only see Polish names," said the politician.