Together with the Vytis (Lithuanian: Partija "Kartu su Vyčiu") is a minor right-wing political party in Lithuania which was founded in 2007. It is led by engineer Vaclovas Žutautas. The party has not achieved significant success in Lithuanian elections.
History
Lithuanian Pensioners' Party
The party was founded as the Lithuanian Pensioners' Party (Lithuanian: Lietuvos pensininkų partija) on 14 June 2007. It described itself as a pensioners' party and its foundation was motivated by injustice towards retired persons in Lithuania.[3] The party's founder, Vytautas Jurgis Kadžys, was a retired army officer who formerly belonged to the far-right Lithuanian Nationalist Union and National Democratic Party of Lithuania.[4] However, Kadžys claimed that the party belongs to neither the political left nor the right and will cooperate with parties from the entire political spectrum.[3]
It participated in the 2011 municipal elections and received 0.37% of the vote, but did not win any mandates.[6] It finished with a worse result in the municipal elections of 2015 and ceased participating in municipal elections.[7]
In January 2020, the party was joined by philosopher Arvydas Juozaitis, who was elected the new party chairman.[10] Juozaitis was a candidate in the 2019 presidential election and campaigned against globalisation and European integration, and had intended to found his own party, but failed to gather the required number of founding members.[10] The party was renamed to the Union of Intergenerational Solidarity - Cohesion for Lithuania (Lithuanian: Kartų solidarumo sąjunga - Santalka Lietuvai), and it was joined by former Order and Justice MP Juozas Imbrasas, giving it its first and only member in the Seimas.[11] The new chairman reasserted the party's defense of pensioner interests, while at the same time requesting youth members, claiming that the party's members require help with modern technology.[11]
Juozaitis described it as a "people's party" and claimed that it seeks to replicate the grassroots success of Barack Obama in Lithuania.[12] It received 0.51% of the vote in the election and did not win a single mandate.[13]
Juozaitis resigned as party chairman after the election, on 30 November 2020.[14]
Together with the Vytis
In June 2021, the party was renamed to its current name, and Vaclovas Žutautas was elected as its new chairman.[15]
In 2022, the Central Electoral Commission seized €6,500 of membership fees after declaring the rate collected as exceeding the maximum of 10% from persons income and subsequently illegal.[16]
"Together with the Vytis" supports pensioners' interests, such as indexing of pensions and reform to the retirement fund system.[18] It defines itself as a nationalist party which seeks to defend Lithuanian national values[15] and family values.[12]
It presents itself as an anti-establishment party opposed to a "moral neo-Marxist revolution from the West" and supports geopolitical neutrality.[19] The party also supports nationalization of strategic sectors of the economy, abandoning the Euro and restoring the Lithuanian litas.[20]
