The Lithuanian and Russian news portals madeinvilnius.lt and ru.delfi.lt are reporting Lithuanian prime minister Gintautas Paluckas (Social Democratic Party) has renewed government plans to refurbish the former Palace of Sports complex in central Vilnius and to renovate the Jewish cemetery where it was built and which surrounds the building.
Paluckas is facing calls to stand a confidence vote in parliament following revelations of sweet-heart loan deals and large discounts for real estate purchases.
According to both news sites, Paluckas wants to renovate the large but decrepit building for use as a conference center, the same plan floated by earlier governments. This iteration of the on-going talk of renovation now includes plans by the PM to install a museum within that space for commemorating the first meeting of Sąjūdis there, and victims of the January 13, 1991, Vilnius television tower massacre. Sąjūdis officially became a political party there and went on to contest elections to the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet against the Lithuanian Communist Party led by Algirdas Brazauskas. Original member of Sąjūdis and later Brazauskas supporter Arvydas Juozaitis is currently completing a boom on the history of the early Lithuanian independence movement which includes a detailed description of that founding meeting, according to pre-publiicty from the author himself.
Earlier governments had planned to house an exhibit on Vilner Jews, Litvak culture and the Holocaust in Lithuania inside the Palace of Sports following renovation. Neither news site mentioned that as part of Paluckas’s revised plan for the site. According to them, Paluckas merely wanted the Jewish cemetery “put in order.”
Vilnius mayor Valdas Benkunskas (Conservative Party) said he hadn’t been informed of any renewed plans and learned about it when reporters asked him to comment.
“This is unexpected, we have not received any information from the government on this issue for a long time.We are simultaneously working on an alternative option for locating the conference center near the Seimas [parliament]. I am concerned about this news, because without detailed information, we do not know much. I was surprised to see such a sharp and harsh message from the government. It seems to me that a broader conversation is needed here. First of all, with the business community, how they see the advantages of this or that location. In this case, I am going to propose a meeting with the relevant business structures and a more detailed discussion. In the case of the Sports Palace, our eyes and hearts ache because the area has been abandoned for so many years, and we want to put it in order, but we don’t want to give up and go down a path that could lead to nowhere again,” Vilnius mayor Valdas Benkunskas said.