Vilnius: Lithuanian opposition parties began talks on Monday on forming a government that will determine the country’s path into the euro zone, having won an election marked by a backlash against years of austerity.

In a warning for other European governments pushing through tough budgets, voters ditched Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius’ administration on Sunday in favour of an alliance of the Social Democratic Party, the Labour Party and the party of an impeached former president.

Kubilius won praise abroad for slashing the budget deficit after a brutal economic crisis four years ago, but saw his popularity slide at home as wages fell, unemployment rose and tens of thousands of people left the small Baltic country in search of work.

“They [voters] are angry because this government has not stopped emigration from Lithuania,” said Social Democratic Party leader Algirdas Butkevicius, 54, a former finance minister and the top candidate for prime minister from the three-party alliance.

He was due to meet President Dalia Grybauskaite, who nominates the prime minister, at 10am (0800 GMT).

Speaking to reporters, Butkevicius said he wanted to name the finance minister and foreign minister in the new government.

The parties have said they would aim to increase the minimum wage, make the tax system fairer and boost investment.

But economists say the new government will have little room to ease back on the austerity as Lithuania needs to retain the confidence of debt markets.

The country needs to raise 7.6 billion litas (Dh10.46 billion) in 2013, about 6.5 per cent of projected gross domestic product.

Butkevicius has said he would be fiscally responsible and stick to the outgoing government’s 2013 budget deficit target.

He told Reuters in an interview he hoped to seek entry to the euro zone for Lithuania in 2015 — a year later than Kubilius had planned.

Butkevicius said his would-be coalition partners backed his timetable, even if during campaigning they said the country should not rush to adopt the common crisis during the sovereign debt crisis.