Do events in Lithuania signal the end for freedom of movement?
by Stuart Gardner, Conservative Home:
Brexit and Donald Trump have occupied the headlines of late, allowing the political earthquake in Lithuania at the end of October to pass relatively unnoticed.
Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004, and its population has since shrunk by more than 10 per cent, from 3.3 million to less than 2.9 million today. It is estimated that during that period 370,000 workers have relocated within the EU to benefit from higher wage levels and greater professional opportunities. The long-term structural problems caused by emigration are already beginning to have serious political repercussions.
In the country’s October elections, the Peasants and Greens, an obscure protest party led by a charismatic billionaire, won nearly 40 per cent of the seats to become the largest party in parliament. Having stood on an anti-emigration platform, their total seats soared from a measly one (in 2012) to 54 of the total 141 seats, whilst the Social Democrats slipped from first to third place. The Peasants and Greens is a populist party made up of an unusual grouping of farmers and environmentalists that leans to the left on economic issues and to the right on social issues.
Lithuania may only be a small nation on the edge of Europe, but the fact that dissatisfaction with freedom of movement played such a prominent role in overthrowing the political establishment should have alarm bells ringing in Berlin and Paris. Not only are voters protesting against high levels of immigration, but others are now making their voice heard about the damage being done to economies by mass emigration.
The other Baltic States are also having to deal with the same phenomenon. In 1991, before the fall of the Soviet Union, Latvia had a population of 2.7 million. Today, it has shrunk to 1.9 million and by 2060 it is projected to be just 1.4 million. Someone who was born in Latvia in 1990 is projected to see their country’s population essentially halve during their lifetime. In Estonia, the population has dropped by nearly 20 per cent since the fall of the Berlin wall.
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