LITHUANIAN PARLIAMENT TO DECIDE PRIME MINISTER’S FATE.

The ruling Democratic Labor Party’s support for Prime Minister Adolfas Slezevicius in his confrontation with President Algirdas Brazauskas is unraveling. The Lithuanian parliament is scheduled to debate today the president’s motion to dismiss the prime minister, who has admitted to personal misconduct in the country’s banking crisis but has for a month defied the president’s request for his resignation. Lithuania’s leading daily Lietuvos Rytas, whose exclusive reports on the banking and ensuing political crisis have proven accurate, disclosed February 6 that Brazauskas has selected Foreign Minister and DLP member Povilas Gylys to be the new prime minister if the parliament votes to dismiss Slezevicius.

A simple majority in the 140-seat parliament would suffice to carry Brazauskas’ motion. The DLP is now down to 68 seats after several defections and an anti-Slezevicius group of 29 deputies has taken shape within the once-solid DLP bloc itself. DLP defectors and dissidents include four parliamentary commission chairmen. DLP rebels also favor replacing the party leadership, which has supported Slezevicius in his dual capacity as prime minister and party chairman in the confrontation with Brazauskas. The entire parliamentary opposition has announced its support for Brazauskas, who founded the DLP, against the prime minister. (10)

Christopher to Meet with Kuchma?