Metinė prenumerata tik 6,99 Eur. Juodai geras pasiūlymas
Išbandyti
2013 01 28

Court orders to remove bilingual street signs in Polish-dominated Lithuanian town

After a court authorized Šalčininkai district administration to remove non-Lithuanian street signs, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has promised a discussion and that there will be no hasty decisions to Polish activists seeking bilingual signs.
Lentelės su gatvių pavadinimais
Lentelės su gatvių pavadinimais / Juliaus Kalinsko / 15min nuotr.

Šalčininkai district administration has pledged to file an appeal against the court ruling.

On Monday, a Vilnius court authorized administrative director of Šalčininkai district municipality to replace the unlawful street signs within a month after enforcement of the ruling.

The court thus upheld the plea filed by the government's representative in Vilnius county who said that signs in the Russian and Polish languages were used alongside Lithuanian-language street signs in some towns and villages in Vilnius district.

Boleslav Daškevič, director of Šalčininkai municipal administration, said that an appeal would be filed to the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court, adding that the municipality could not take down signs from private homes.

"We will submit an appeal. Our argumentation is that the signs have been ordered by people who paid money for them. The signs are on privately-owned houses. There are no normative acts on removal of signs from a private house," Daškevič told BNS.

Out of 34,600 residents of the Šalčininkai district, some 26,900 said during the 2011 census that they were of Polish nationality.

Butkevičius, the leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party, says that there will be no hasty decisions in connection to bilingual street signs. Lithuanian laws only allow Lithuanian-language signs and courts have repeatedly ruled that bilingual signs are illegal.

"I haven't received anything yet and I think the issue will not be addressed in the immediate future," he told journalists on Monday.

The prime minister said a discussion would be held but refrained from giving an opinion: "I think the matter will be discussed. As soon as the discussion is over, I will give my opinion."

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