Raimondas Grinevičius Algimantas Rusteika Adelina Sabaliauskaitė Vitolda Račkova Arvydas Daunys Artūras Orlauskas Gitana Balčiūnienė Kristina Stumbrienė Antanas Norvydas Daiva Narkevičiūtė Laura Lodienė Andrius Galkinas Jonas Gedvilas Tomas Senūta Egidijus Visockas
During a protest organized by the Lithuanian Family Movement, there was some booing of the Lithuanian politicians Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen and Ingrida Šimonytė as well as a former anti-Soviet dissident Sr. Bernadeta Mališkaitė at an honorary public event to commemorate January 13 in 2022.[5][6] Soon thereafter, the movement stated in an open letter that "We regret the individual disrespectful outbursts" during Mališkaitė's speech and that "the negative reaction was not aimed at the defenders of freedom or the events of January 13th, but at politicians".[5]
On 3 February 2024, it merged with the Christian conservativeChristian Union, and representatives of the Lithuanian Family Movement — Edita Aleksandravičė, Artūras Orlauskas, Vitolda Račkova, Tomas Senūta, Egidijus Visockas — were elected to the party's executive committee. The unified party adopted a Christian right, soft Eurosceptic platform.[7]
Movement structure and ideology
The Lithuanian Family Movement is a unified sociopolitical entity with Raimondas Grinevičius[8] alongside the Council of other nine members serving as its primary leadership.[2] The movement organises a march, known as the Great Family Defense March (Lithuanian: Didysis šeimų gynimo maršas), annually. According to one of the founders Arturas Orlauskas, the purpose of such nationwide gatherings is “to protect the Lithuanian state from anticonstitutional actions, which violate the basic rights and freedoms of the society.”[9] They are also organized to “defend our country’s children, the youth, families, and schools from the harmful influence of sexual minorities…”[9]
Relations with foreign partners
The movement has been strengthening its ties with other European anti-gender groups and government officials in countries such as Poland, Hungary, Italy, Germany, and Ireland. On September 1, 2021, the former Hungarian Minister of Family Affairs, Katalin Novák, congratulated and expressed her support to the Lithuanian Family Movement in an official written address to the Chairman of the Council and the Lithuanian people.[10] Soon after, Irish senatorRónán Mullen congratulated the movement for fighting for “a society where every person is being respected and is striving for common good.”[11] In 2022, Florio Scifo, the World Youth Alliance coordinator of Italy, sympathised with the movement participants of the annual march.[12] On June 13–14, 2022, a delegation from the Lithuanian Family Movement held a meeting with the management of the Polish Catholic organisation Ordo Iuris and officially agreed on further cooperation.[13] Other notable honorary guests include a far-right German politician Steffen Kotré.[14]
Even though Marius Gabrilavičius, a chief editor of a pro-Russian website minfo.lt claimed to have been one of the organisers of the Great Family Defense March, Raimondas Grinevičius denied the link between Gabrilavičius and his organisation.