Lithuania is resisting the rising unpopularity of marriage a bit more compared to other countries in Europe. A tenacity that has been carefully held by the quite influential church who suffers at the idea of sacrificing its main institution on the altar of ‘new social tendencies’. An interview between Vilnius, Kaunas and an imbroglio of […]
As a result of 2008 crisis, unemployment pushed a significant amount of young Lithuanians to try their luck abroad. After a peak in 2010, the flow seemed to slow little by little. Now, there is even the return of these expatriates, pushed by government policies for their return as much as by improving economic conditions. […]
Less than 3,000 Roma live in Lithuania. Representing 0.1% of the population, there are still enough Baltic ‘gypsies’ to serve as a scapegoat in a country feeling squeezed by the crisis. However, in one Lithuanian village, Romualda, Svetlana, Konstantin and Konsuela are helping the community to lift its head. ‘If you meet a Roma, there […]
Belarus is just 40 kilometres away from the Lithuanian capital. Belarusian human rights campaigners use Vilnius as an asylum and distribution centre – yet the Lithuanian president keeps up a good relationship with the Belarusian despot. The centre is so hidden that even the KGB hadn’t yet found it: who would voluntarily go along the […]
There is nothing more multicultural in Lithuania right now than the new library which opened in the capital of this Baltic state on 16 December. The concept is simple: all books, films and music must be about either a Jewish subject, writer or artist Films by Steven Spielberg will sit side by side with religious […]
6.7% Polish, 6.3% Russian, 1.2% Belarusian, 0.7% Ukrainian, 0.1% Yiddish, 0.09% Tartar… approximately 115 communities of ethnic minorities were listed in this vein in a 2001 census in Lithuania. How integrated are these groups in local society? One way of finding out is by hitting the tiles. They go to separate schools. They have never […]
An increasing number of students are asking professor Žilvinas Martinaitis at the University of Vilnius to let them take their exams at the end of May. This would allow them to go abroad – most popularly, to the UK, Ireland or Scandinavia – to work, and return with some extra money in October, a month […]
The River Neris splits Vilnius down the middle: to the North – campuses of various universities, stadiums and terraces with views; to the south is the heart of the capital: cobbled, colourful, and impeccable. But a sinister notice hangs from one of its bridges, followed by a telephone number. ‘There are people who care about […]
It wasn’t the economic weakness of the crisis but the ideological one that harmed Europe most. Who wanted to be be part of the dominoes in the name of solidarity? Unfortunately, the dominoes of each member state provoked nationalist reactions. The region comprising the Lithuanian capital is one of the few cities where two nations […]
Whilst Vilnius welcomes visitors from around the world because of its status as the European capital of culture 2009, countless are leaving the country in an attempt to escape widespread unemployment and salaries which are under the European average for the most part. Following its adhesion to the EU in 2004, and the freedom of […]
Twenty years after the Iron Curtain, the Baltic tiger is experiencing a bout of nostalgia. A young, trendy generation, fed up of hearing about the past, is looking back at a not-quite-so ‘carefree’ childhood under the soviet regime. ‘The transition left me stunned. I was a teenager back then. When I watch archive material from […]
From 88% nuclear energy in 1993, the Baltic country used just 26% in 2007. The intervening 14 years saw its entry into EU and a dramatic increase in energy dependence on Russia. Lithuania is relying on Europe to guarantee its energy security but what is the answer? Nuclear, renewable or both? In 1993, Lithuania beat […]
The decision was taken: the European humanities university, created in Minsk, Belarus in 1992, packed up to join Vilnius (and democracy) in 2004. In this oasis of free education, Belarusian youth have been exiled further and further to the west. One morning in May 2009, an unexpected calm reigns over the bus station in Vilnius. […]
In Lithuanian law, the term ‘common good’ does not exist. This is in spite of the fact that in 1997, the Treaty of Amsterdam introduced this idea into the Treaty of Rome, making it a reality in the European sphere. The small Baltic country, which has been a member of the EU since May 2004, […]
Since the financial crisis at the end of the nineties, business and media have gone hand in hand. Monopolising circumstances and media moguls dominate the local market. Politics and economics pay for positive news coverage and those who criticise the system are openly defamed. ‘In this picture I look like Putin,’ says Rytis Juozapavičius, pointing […]
Vilnius is booming. Not far from the Old Town, the city’s new skyline is glinting in the sun on the north bank of the river Neris. Between the glass facades of the skyscrapers, shoppers are scurrying around on marble pavements. Hardly thirty paces further there is a building site. Noisy builders are working on the […]
It’s nighttime in Vilnius, with temperatures minus 30°. A neon light shines dimly from the second floor of an apartment block. ‘It’s there.’ Eduardas Platovas points a finger to the square of light, home to his struggle for more than a decade. Surrounded by concrete and half-light, the headquarters of the Lithuanian Lesbian and Gay […]
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