Conference of Chairs of the Constituent Seimas of the Lithuania: Guidelines for the Activities of the Senior Convention

Abstract

2020 is an exceptional year in the history of the Lithuanian state; this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Lithuania. On May 15, 1920, the Constituent Seimas, meeting in the provisional capital of Lithuania in Kaunas, solemnly proclaimed the independence of the State of Lithuania and, on behalf of all Lithuanian citizens, declared State of Lithuania as a democratic republic. The article seeks to examine the organization of the work of the first Lithuanian Parliament, elected in general and democratic elections. The purpose of the article is to review the circumstances of the formation of the Conference of Chairs of Constituent Seimas of the Lithuania (1920–1922), to determine the composition of the Conference of Chairs and the change of its members, to describe the collective portrait of them, to review the range of issues discussed at the Conference of Chairs. In the Constituent Seimas, the Conference of Chairs was formed only on 22 of May in 1922, at the sixth meeting of the Founding Seimas, after the provisional Statute of the Constituent Seimas had already been approved. The establishment of the Conference of Chairs was initiated by the Presidium of the Constituent Seimas. The main task of the Conference of Chairs was to help solve the most sensitive issues of the organization of the work of the Seimas. The Conference of Chairs consisted of the members of Presidium (seven members) of the Constituent Seimas and of 12 representatives of different political groups. First Deputy Speaker of the Constituent Seimas Jonas Staugaitis become Chairman of the Conference of Chairs. Although the Conference of Chairs of the Constituent Seimas consisted at all of 19 members, during the entire term of the Constituent Seimas there were 37 parliamentarians as members of the Conference of Chairs. By party affiliation, there were 17 – representatives of the Christian Democratic Bloc, 11 – representatives of the Peasant people’s bloc, 3 – Social Democrats, 5 – representatives of the Jewish Group and 1 – representatives of the Polish group.