LITHUANIA’S NEW GOVERNMENT IN PLACE.

The Lithuanian parliament yesterday approved by an overwhelming margin the composition and program of the new government. The vote puts an end to a prolonged government crisis caused by former prime minister Gediminas Vagnorius’ personal conflict with President Valdas Adamkus, which led to Vagnorius’ resignation (see the Monitor, April 21-22, May 3-5). The new government under Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas (see Paksas’ profile in the Monitor, May 19) is a reshuffled version of its predecessor, based on Fatherland Union/Lithuanian Conservatives (FU/LC) and their junior ally, the Christian-Democratic Party. Lithuania’s foreign partners will find Foreign Minister Algirdas Saudargas and Defense Minister Ceslovas Stankevicius–Christian-Democrats both–in the same posts. FU/LC holds seven cabinet posts, including that of prime minister. Five ministers are nonpartisan and one–at Justice–belongs to the pro-presidential Center Union. The nonparty minister of finance, Eugenijus Maldeikis, enjoys the approval of the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists, which had directly nominated the finance minister in the Vagnorius cabinet.

The government’s program lists accession to the European Union and NATO, liberalization of the business environment, job creation and promotion of exports–primarily of processed foodstuffs–as the top priorities of national policy. The government favors the privatization of the country’s oil sector in partnership with the Williams International company of the United States. The term of office of the current parliament–and consequently the life expectancy of the new government–runs until the end of 2000 (BNS, June 10).

FOREIGN MINISTRY AND RED PARLIAMENTARY LEADERS ESPOUSE CLASHING VIEWS ON UKRAINE’S POLICY.