Baltic States – CIS, Culture, Legislation, Lithuania, Real Estate, Transport

A picket was organised outside the Department of Cultural Heritage (KPD) aimed against the Soviet sculptures of the Green Bridge.

7 members of the Council voted against lifting legal protection of the bridge, while only 1 was for.

"It is a pity that the majority of the Assessment Council's members decided that the current situation must continue, while I was the only one who clearly said that it should not," Romas Pakalnis, Chairman of the Council, told ELTA news agency after the sitting.

Pakalnis said that he will consider withdrawing from the chairman's position due to such conclusion of the meeting. His term of office ends in late March.

A peaceful picket outside the Department of Cultural Heritage was held by the Union of Volunteer Creators of the Lithuanian Army, the Brotherhood of 13 January for the Defence of Lithuanian Independence. The rally was also attended by representatives of the Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees and members of the National Union.

The Green Bridge was included in the Register of Cultural Heritage in 1997. Social realism sculptures Youth of Education, Guarding Peace, Industry and Construction, and Agriculture were erected on the bridge in 1952.