“On Sunday, we will do “ReferendumDarom!” | AlytusPlus.lt

“On Sunday, we will do “ReferendumDarom!”. Dalia Henke, the chairperson of the World Lithuanian Community, called this while participating in the event “All answers about 2024″. referendum”, held on Friday at the Alytus Regional History Museum.

Nerijus Cesiulis, the mayor of the Alytus city municipality, who delivered the welcome speech, said: “When we joined the European Union, Alytus was the city that most actively supported and supported the wishes of emigrants, our brothers and sisters, by participating in the previous referendum. We all want Lithuania to be bigger, not 2.8 million. people, and more than 3 million Lithuania. Many apartments in Alytus are dark in the evenings, but they are not for sale. So people are going to come back and live. I really believe that we will speak well in the referendum – we will invite those who are returning home.”

On Sunday, when electing the country’s president, Lithuania will also solve a long-standing problem – Lithuanians who left after 1990. March 11 and after acquiring the citizenship of another state, they lose the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania acquired by birth. In the referendum, we will decide whether our citizens, who already acquired the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania at birth, will be able to retain it if they acquire the citizenship of another state friendly to Lithuania.

D. Henke, who has lived in Hamburg (Germany) for more than thirty years, speaking about the importance of preserving citizenship and the upcoming referendum, asked not to take away what a person was born with. Every year, the state of Lithuania loses about 1,000 of its citizens. And it’s not just a number, it’s living stories.

Lithuania is one of the few member states of the European Union that do not allow the preservation of citizenship (in addition to Lithuania, Austria, Estonia, the Netherlands, Slovakia). 22 out of 27 EU member states allow it to be preserved.

The referendum would be considered to have taken place if more than half of the citizens of the Republic of Lithuania with the right to vote participated in it. The decision would be considered adopted if the referendum took place and more than half of the people participating in the referendum voted for the question, that is, about 1.2 million. voters would vote for.

“The referendum can open the door to easier return,” said Tadas Kubilius, head of the Return to Lithuania Department of the Global Lithuania Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presenting the current affairs of the diaspora’s return to Lithuania. There is a trend of four years in a row, when more people return to Lithuania than leave it.

Jurgita Šukevičienė and Lina Gaidžiūnaitė, the mayor’s advisor Vija Kudzienė, also participated in the event.

It was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alytus City Municipality and Alytus Local History Museum. Vida Grišmanauskienė, director of the Alytus Jurgis Kunčinas public library, moderated.

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