The new Speaker of the Seimas Irena Degutienė has put her foot down blasting her colleagues. Photo courtesy of the Seimas.

VILNIUS — New parliament speaker Irena Degutienė has come out swinging, saying the current parliament is but a shadow of the Supreme Council, the organization that ran the country before the formation of the Seimas.

“After working in the Seimas for many years and following our work I always look back with nostalgia to the activity of the Supreme Council. It seems that activities were most stable then and we made important decisions. Its an example for me and its what we strive for — how we should work and what responsibility we should take,” she told local media.

Degutienė said the image of the Seimas has hit rock bottom.

“Its really a pity that from all institutions [in the country] the prestige of the Seimas is in last place. The question is, what happened? Do we [parliamentarians] arrive at Seimas like this, even though people are electing us with trust, or do we get lost among every day intrigues? It doesn’t look good,” Degutienė said

The new speaker has voiced plans to start looking for a new Seimas councilor. She also wants to reorganize subordinate institutions of the Seimas, to reduce the number of controllers and meet with MPs, fraction and committee leaders.

Degutienė sidestepped the issue of micromanaging Seimas expense accounts saying that parliamentarians spending wastefully should be held accountable.

“The parliament speaker isn’t the mother or father of parliamentarians and I shouldn’t have to catch them red-handed. It is the business of the Seimas members how they spend their expenses,” Degutienė said.

Degutienė was sworn in as speaker of the Seimas on Thursday following the resignation of former Speaker Arunas Valinskas earlier in the week with 87 votes for and 48 against her. Deputy Speaker of the Seimas Česlovas Vytautas Stankevičius presented Degutienė as a candidate to the Seimas Speaker. Some 49 members of parliament signed the proposal recommending Degutienė to the post.

She joins President Dalia Grybauskaitė as the second woman in the country’s three most important positions in the government — the president, prime minister and Speaker of the Seimas.

The Speaker of the Seimas has the responsibility of signing off on bills before they go to the president to become law and becomes the president in case of death or other circumstances forcing the president to resign.