On Friday morning, when the portal Žmonės.lt contacted P. Gražulis, he said that he was still on his way to the meeting, as he had overslept and would be quite late.
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“I overslept, I came back late last night, now I’m just near Palanga, but I told the Child Rights Service that I would be there,” P. Gražulis said to Žmonės.lt in the morning.
He said that this Friday morning he also experienced a surprise – after a long silence, B. Navickaitė herself called him.
“Birutė called me for the first time now. She told me that at school on Monday she herself said that the child does not want to go to school because they laugh at her there. And she says that the Child Rights Service did not help her, did not talk to her daughter, did not assign case management, and did not help figure out what to do so that she would not resist and would go to school,” the MEP shared.
Asked how the conversation with Birutė went, and whether they argued, the man said no.
“Strangely, but she spoke quite nicely, apparently when she’s upset, she becomes nice. But I haven’t done anything here, I didn’t report her and didn’t know all the circumstances – I only found out from the deputy school principal and from the Child Rights Service, because Birutė didn’t answer the phone when I called, although I called to ask where she was… And now she called me for the first time herself, I probably spoke with her about half a year ago, or maybe even earlier,” P. Gražulis told Žmonės.lt.
The politician also shared that he heard from Birutė that the daughter does not want to live with him.
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“She said that the daughter does not want to live with me, she wants to return to her mother. I just spoke with the lawyer, and she says that if the child did not go to school, and the mother drank, but as she explains, the girl was in a safe environment with a sober person, there was no reason to take her and hand her over to guardians,” P. Gražulis said.
P. Gražulis also gave many arguments why it would be difficult for the child to live with him.
“I explain, but no one listens to me. For example, if I take her to live with me, are there places at the school, will they accept her, maybe the classes are overcrowded – I don’t even know. Secondly, Birutė said she would go to court because the child was taken from her illegally, and if the court satisfies her claims, will we return the child to Palanga again? So maybe let’s wait for the court’s decision. Another thing – let’s look at the child’s interests,” the politician said.
He also spoke about his work schedule, which, according to him, is not adapted for a single man raising a child.
“In the European Parliament, there is such a work schedule: two weeks in Brussels, one in Strasbourg, and one in Lithuania, so I can’t drag the child around. Of course, when there is a family, they settle either in Brussels or Lithuania, but how to solve this issue now? Moreover, I don’t have a person and it’s not so easy to find someone to take care of, take to school, you can’t find a person in one day by advertisement. My children say we can take her for a couple of weeks, but they live in Kaunas, so again… Well, it’s very complicated,” P. Gražulis concluded the conversation with Žmonės.lt.
Regarding the further course of the situation, the portal Žmonės.lt contacted the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service. As soon as we receive their comment, we will update the article.
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