Uspaskich said he could not specify whether the Labor Party will now vote in support of the government's program, adding it would be a decision made by the party, not him personally. The Labor Party's leader said he would not put artificial hindrances on the path of the government's approval, noting he would search for solutions together with Prime Minister-designate Algirdas Butkevičius of the Social Democrats.
"What is my opinion? Not good. It would be great to have them. Good specialists, old politicians with extensive experience, including administrative and management, they are also popular," Uspaskich said in comment of the president's decision to reject the three candidates. He told journalists that he had not yet been officially notified of the rejection.
"Thank God, the agriculture minister stayed," Uspaskich said in comment of the reasons behind the rejection of the three candidates.
Asked whether the Labor Party would now support the government's program, Uspaskich said: "You shouldn't be asking me this major question, I am the party leader, but there's also the political group and the presidium. I cannot say for sure but we will definitely not procrastinate, we will search for any opportunity, I just have to meet with the prime minister (designate) and discuss it with him."
He pledged to meet with Butkevičius immediately after the meeting of the ad hoc parliamentary commission for the legal immunity of Labor Party MPs.
After proposing a list of candidates for ministers, Butkevičius said that President Dalia Grybauskaitė found three out of four Labor candidates unsuitable.
After the meeting, Butkevičius said that new candidates for education, social security, and culture ministers would be proposed after the new government takes an oath.