Press release, 11 March 2015
Dear Lithuanian people,
Your Excellency President of the Republic of Lithuania, Prime Minister, President Valdas Adamkus,
President of the Supreme Council– Re-constituent Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania,
Signatories to the Act of Independence of Lithuania,
Colleague Members of the Seimas and Government of the Republic of Lithuania,
Honourable guests and participants of this solemn commemoration,
In the night of 11 March 1990, here, in this historical Hall, the Signatories to the Act of Independence of Lithuania signed an extremely significant document, which essentially changed the history of our Nation and our state.
By doing this, they expressed the self-determination and will of the whole Nation. The fate of our state lay in the hands of the representatives of the Nation that day. I believe that at the moment of signing the Act of Independence of Lithuania they were already free since only free people are able to make choices and only a free man can understand that compulsion, violence, aggression and terror have no power against the inner freedom of a human being.
Dear Signatories to the Act of Independence of Lithuania, your signature is a sign of boundless love to your Homeland, responsibility for its history, its future and for all those who fought and gave their lives.
I hereby invite you to pay tribute by a minute of silence to the Lithuanian people who died for the Independence and the Signatories to the Act of Independence who are no longer with us as well as to all those who fought for the re-establishment of independence and who were day by day tirelessly building a new and independent Lithuania until their last breath.
Thank you.
Twenty-five years in a free and independent Lithuania. This is a really significant time span in the life of a human being. During such a period a person grows up, acquires education, work experience, creates and fosters relationships. But what 25 years mean to a young state? How have we succeeded on this way of the state life? Reflecting it in words should be difficult. I hereby invite you to focus your attention on the screens now and to recall brief moments from the 25-year-long history of the Lithuanian state. As they say: seeing is believing.
May I wish you a beautiful and meaningful holiday.
