Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Ex-communists put accent on 'ex' to win in Lithuania Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 15:07:56 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Ex-communists put accent on 'ex' to win in Lithuania \BY Alan Cooperman \CR ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT VILNIUS, Lithuania VILNIUS, Lithuania - The former communists who returned to power in Lithuania's free elections are as well-oiled a machine as the star-studded national basketball team, and Algirdas Brazauskas towers over them like a 7-foot center. His cool leadership and popularity were major factors in voting Sunday, when his former communists - renamed the Democratic Labor Party - captured a majority of the parliament's 141 seats. Mr. Brazauskas was able to convince Lithuanians his party "left communist ideology behind" and supports independence and free enterprise. The 60-year-old with a phone-booth physique even turned his past into an advantage. He reminded the Baltic nation of 3.7 million that his career as a central planner taught him how to drive a hard bargain with the Kremlin. "I have 30 years' experience with the Moscow bureaucracy. I know how things work there. I won't get lost in those Russian corridors," he said on election night. Electoral officials said his party won 35 of the 61 seats contested in Sunday's runoff elections, after winning 44 seats in the first round three weeks ago. With 79 seats, it can form a government without a coalition partner. Sajudis, the party that led Lithuania to independence, lost the election for two main reasons: cold water and hot heads. Russia now demands that Lithuania pay world prices for its formerly subsidized oil and gas. That raised the cost of energy so fast that one-third of all factories closed or laid off workers, and hot water was shut off to most apartments. Without explaining exactly how, Mr. Brazauskas suggested he could cut a better deal. "We will never give up our statehood . . . but compromises must be sought," he said. "What are we going to do, freeze all winter?" Sajudis also was unable to shake criticism it is dominated by hot-headed nationalists who blame Moscow for everything, gets into fistfights in parliament and makes a fetish out of uncovering former KGB collaborators. When the new parliament meets this month, it is almost certain to elect Mr. Brazauskas as its chairman and acting president of the country, replacing President Vytautas Landsbergis. The first direct presidential election is to be held by March 31. Lithuania is a basketball-crazy nation whose stars once led the Soviet team to Olympic gold and now play in the NBA. The 6-foot-3 Mr. Brazauskas does not play basketball; his favorite pastimes are sailing and hunting. But other than that, he seems perfectly plugged into the national psyche, which can be stubborn but is generally cool and collected. Sajudis "lost a lot of support by acting very primitively. . . . It tried to create an artificial revolution and even adopted revolutionary terms, like 'enemies of the people,' " said Krescencius Stoshkus, a political scientist at Vilnius University. "Brazauskas conducted himself very humbly. He didn't respond to accusations. He gave the campaign a high tone - and I think that won him a lot of support," Mr. Stoshkus said. Mr. Brazauskas was trained as an engineer and worked in construction before becoming a state economic planner in 1966. Eleven years later, he became a full-time Communist Party secretary, and in 1988, the party boss in Lithuania. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM