The two parties are holding emergency meetings of their presidiums and councils on Sunday.
Petras Gražulis, elder of the Order and Justice political group in the Seimas, confirmed it to BNS that the parties are discussing a potential merger.
"Talks have been going on for a long time and now the units have already been informed. There's a mutual wish, and the council will decide on Sunday whether to back the merger," Gražulis told BNS.
Vice-Chairwoman of the Labor Party, Virginija Baltraitienė, told BNS the party's leadership plans to discuss the potential merger the coming weekend weekend.
"There seem to be plans for the merger (of the Labor Party and the Order and Justice Party – BNS), but there are no decisions at the political level, although talks are taking place that central powers should merge," Baltraitienė said.
According to Gražulis, details have been discussed for the parties to merge on a parity basis. MEP Rolandas Paksas, leader of the Order and Justice Party, would lead the new party for the first two years and would later be replaced by Viktor Uspaskich, leader of the Labor Party.
MEP Rolandas Paksas, leader of the Order and Justice Party, told BNS that cooperation talks with parties are taking place but it was too soon to talk about any merger with the Labor Party.
Vice-Chairman of the Labor Party, Kęstas Komskis, said merger talks are being held not only with the Order and Justice Party, but with the Liberal Center Union, which failed to get into the Seimas, as well. Talks with the Labor Party, however, have progressed further. He also drew attention to the fact that any decision on a party merger should be backed by the party congress, with at least 65 days needed to call it.
The Labor Party currently has 29 seats in Lithuania's 141-seat parliament. The Order and Justice Party has 10. Together, the two would make the biggest parliamentary group of 39 MPs, overtaking the Social Democrats with 38.
According to Gražulis, the new party would be called Order, Labor, and Justice.
