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The chapter aims to analyse the evolution of the Farmers and Greens, a centrist-populist party that scored a shock victory in the 2016 parliamentary elections in Lithuania, and more specifically the political profile of its leader Ramūnas Karbauskis, a socially conservative agro-tycoon. The overall methodology of the chapter is qualitative. It is a case study of the most powerful populist movement in the most recent times in Lithuania, which is almost single-handedly run by one person. It will also employ a process tracing technique to detect causal preconditions and mechanisms of the evolution of this force, and in more particular how its leader Karbauskis, elected in the Seimas for the first time in 1996 being 26 years old, eventually managed to create both a powerful business empire and a relatively well-developed and territorially extensive party machine that upset all the mainstream parties in the elections in 2016. Given that it was not the first time when a strong populist and/or personalist party arose in Lithuania, the chapter will draw parallels between the Farmers and Greens and their leader with other strong populist personalities, such as a formerly impeached Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas of the Order and Justice, and another tycoon Viktor Uspaskich, and their respective movements. Moreover, it will speculate how similar and how different Karbauskis and his party are with other analogous figures in East-Central Europe. The chapter will consist of four parts. The first three parts will chronologically delineate (1) the period until Karbauskis came to power, (2) the period how he ruled and what his relationship with the democratic institutions at the time, and lastly (3) how he and the Farmers and Greens have fared after the fall from power in 2020 and what is their current political role in the country. The fourth part will reflect on how the rise and fall of Karbauskis is making an impact upon the Lithuanian political system, and what we can infer from this case about the character and resilience of this post-communist Baltic democracy.

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Ramūnas Karbauskis of the Farmers and Greens: Leader of the People or Power-Grabbing Oligarch?

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Liutauras Gudžinskas

摘要

The chapter aims to analyse the evolution of the Farmers and Greens, a centrist-populist party that scored a shock victory in the 2016 parliamentary elections in Lithuania, and more specifically the political profile of its leader Ramūnas Karbauskis, a socially conservative agro-tycoon. The overall methodology of the chapter is qualitative. It is a case study of the most powerful populist movement in the most recent times in Lithuania, which is almost single-handedly run by one person. It will also employ a process tracing technique to detect causal preconditions and mechanisms of the evolution of this force, and in more particular how its leader Karbauskis, elected in the Seimas for the first time in 1996 being 26 years old, eventually managed to create both a powerful business empire and a relatively well-developed and territorially extensive party machine that upset all the mainstream parties in the elections in 2016. Given that it was not the first time when a strong populist and/or personalist party arose in Lithuania, the chapter will draw parallels between the Farmers and Greens and their leader with other strong populist personalities, such as a formerly impeached Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas of the Order and Justice, and another tycoon Viktor Uspaskich, and their respective movements. Moreover, it will speculate how similar and how different Karbauskis and his party are with other analogous figures in East-Central Europe. The chapter will consist of four parts. The first three parts will chronologically delineate (1) the period until Karbauskis came to power, (2) the period how he ruled and what his relationship with the democratic institutions at the time, and lastly (3) how he and the Farmers and Greens have fared after the fall from power in 2020 and what is their current political role in the country. The fourth part will reflect on how the rise and fall of Karbauskis is making an impact upon the Lithuanian political system, and what we can infer from this case about the character and resilience of this post-communist Baltic democracy.