In the past decade, the country was forced to stop its nuclear energy program because of EU request to shut down the Ignalina nuclear site, considered unsafe because it used similar reactors to those in Chernobyl Nuclear Plant.
Lithuanian citizens have shown skepticism towards the nuclear and rejected an economy sustained by nuclear power. In fact, about 60 percent of voters rejected the project. Although this non-binding outcome is considered, the exceptionally high turnout for a post soviet country – over 50 percent of eligible voters expressed their opinion on the national energy strategy – is a clear message. The direct voice of citizens could affect the country's decision-making. Lithuanians' opinion interfered with one of the most strategic and vital assets of their economy and delayed or probably stopped the building of Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant.
Lithuania might need nuclear energy as a baby needs milk. Energy cost and security are the biggest challenges for the country. However, people refused the rational and pragmatic logic of securing the country at any cost. A considerable number of Lithuanians affirmed a simple principle: In their view, nuclear energy is bad, too expensive, and it is better to achieve energy independence with renewable sources.
The outcome of this referendum is a further proof that nuclear energy is currently not acceptable to populations in one of the areas that suffered most after the Chernobyl disaster.
This referendum is an example of democracy in the region where two other countries are developing nuclear programs. These include the Baltic Nuclear Power Plant in Kaliningrad (Russia's exclave bordering with Lithuania), and Astravec Nuclear Power Plant in Belarus near the Lithuanian border, not far from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Neither of these two countries held democratic consultations with their populations via a referendum, although both nations might hold similar views on nuclear energy as their close neighbors.
It is a fact that in both Belarus and Kaliningrad, nuclear power plants are imposed by high-level representatives in the economic and political establishment. Belarus and its people in particular suffered the negative consequences of nuclear energy and therefore a verification of public support should be a political, social, and moral duty.
In April this year, representative of the United Civic Party of Belarus Anatol Liabedzka was detained to stop his antinuclear campaign. Later in July, some protesters were arrested during a top level Russian-Belarusian meeting on the nuclear plant.
Judging by headlines published by the Belarusian Information Company BELAPAN a few days after the Lithuanian referendum – “Astravec nuclear plant is a crime,” “Scientists for nuclear-free Belarus” – the Belarusian Green Party and other NGOs welcomed the outcome of the referendum and asked the leadership of Belarus not to build a nuclear plant against the will of Belarusian and Lithuanian people – to follow the example of other European countries that rejected nuclear energy.
According to a report by BankTrack, a global network of civil society organizations and individuals tracking the operations of private financial sector, the local population of Kaliningrad has been repeatedly denied the right to vote on the Baltic Nuclear Power Plant. So far, there have been four applications requesting a local referendum, the last one in 2011, but all of them were rejected by local Parliament and authorities for various formal reasons.
This referendum in Lithuania could thus become an emblem of democratic participation that its two neighbors, Belarus and Russia, still lack. There is no doubt that this won't pass unobserved among the populations of Kaliningrad and Belarus and that will help them to better understand the different levels of public participation that exist in the post-Soviet region.
Giuliano Quattroni holds degrees in Interdisciplinary Research and Eastern European Studies from the University of Bologna and Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. He currently resides in Vilnius, working in market research at a US company.
