LITHUANIA: Lithuania's traditional political powers united yesterday to stop a pickled-food magnate with strong links to Moscow sweeping the Baltic nation's general election. Daniel McLaughlin in Budapest.
Mr Viktor Uspaskich, a Russian-born millionaire whose face graces his own brand of gherkins, vowed to push for the post of prime minister after his recently formed Labour Party won the first round of voting a fortnight ago.
But the ruling coalition of Social Liberals and Social Democrats, along with their potential Conservative Party partners in a "rainbow coalition", clinched 32 of 66 seats on offer in yesterday's second round, probably enough to scuttle Mr Uspaskich's ambitions.
"All traditional parties should see the state's interests, and if we do see these interests we can make a broad coalition," said outgoing Prime Minister Mr Algirdas Brazauskas.
Mr Uspaskich's rivals have criticised as unworkable his popular promise to raise wages and pensions while lowering taxes, and have suggested that his long-standing ties to the Russian gas industry will help reassert Kremlin influence over Lithuania.
"The shift would be to that side and not to European democracy," warned Mr Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania's first post-Soviet head of state and a still influential figure.
President Valdas Adamkus has already expressed his reluctance to name Mr Uspaskich as prime minister, and suggested that he favours reappointing Mr Brazauskas.