Vilnius. The crisis came by complete surprise. When people woke up this morning, they found themselves incapable of buying sugar in their local supermarkets. Responsible for the disaster seems to be the Polish government. While most of the Lithuanian sugar is exported to Western Europe, the local markets rely on the Polish imports. They stopped though out of the sudden a few days ago. A speaker of the Polish governmental administration in Warsaw said that it came to heavy arguments over the sugar prices while debating the new import/export rates last week. The Polish government also might try to play with the Lithuanians need for sugar. It’s widely known that in no other country in the world the addiction for sugar is higher than in the most southern of the Baltic States.
In the meantime people in Vilnius and other major cities of Lithuania started hoarding massive amounts of sugar. It’s been said that first sugar sellers illegally trade their hoarded goods on the streets. Therefore the opening of a new black market branch is even expected by the Lithuanian government. The Prime Minister today announced that the police forces will take action against the illegal sugar dealers which more and more seem to mushroom in the urban spaces of the capital. Further it’s been discussed to take legal proceedings against the Polish sugar blockade by filing a lawsuit at the International Court for Human Rights. Simultaneously first Lithuanian army troops were seen by independent observers marching close to the Polish border.
Are we perhaps walking straight in to a new European military conflict? The scenario wouldn’t even be to a big surprise. Already a few years ago Lithuania and Poland faced a quite similar situation about the so called potato blockade – a very sensitive part of Lithuanian history. Back then Lithuanian troops even marched more than ten kilometers into the foreign territory to secure huge amounts of the summer’s potato harvest. The Lithuanians need for sugar might be less strong than for potatoes, but still their persistent resistance is widely known. The next days and weeks will show what’s going to happen and if we are sliding into another military conflict in Eastern Europe. Our thoughts are with the Lithuanian nation that suffers from this painful lack of sugar.
