Lithuanian government party leader convicted of inciting hatred towards Jews

JTA – The leader of a Lithuanian party in the ruling coalition government was convicted on Thursday, 4 December, for inciting hatred towards Jews and grossly minimising the Holocaust in a series of public statements and social media posts in 2023. 

Remigijus Žemaitaitis, the head of the populist Nemuno Aušra party, was fined €5 000, or $5 835 (R99 250), by the Vilnius Regional Court. 

In her decision, Judge Nida Vigelienė said that Žemaitaitis had “publicly mocked, demeaned, and encouraged hatred” toward Jews as well as “grossly minimised the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany on Lithuania’s territory in an offensive and insulting manner”, according to the Lithuanian public service broadcaster LRT. 

Žemaitaitis’ conviction was related to statements he had issued in May and June of 2023, including social media posts, a speech delivered in Parliament, and an exchange with a journalist, in which he falsely accused Jews of killing Lithuanians. 

“How long will our politicians continue to kneel to the Jews who killed our countrymen, contributed to the persecution, torture, and destruction of Lithuanians,” wrote Žemaitaitis in all-caps, according to the country’s constitutional court. “There was a Holocaust of the Jews, but an even greater Holocaust of Lithuanians was in Lithuania!” 

In other posts, Žemaitaitis also baselessly blamed Jews for the 1944 Nazi massacres in the Lithuanian villages of Pirčiupiai and Kaniukai. 

Thursday’s ruling wasn’t the first time that a Lithuanian legislator has come under fire for Holocaust distortion. In 2021, Valdas Rakutis, a member of Lithuania’s Parliament, was criticised by the United States ambassador to Lithuania for claiming in a speech that there was “no shortage of Holocaust perpetrators among the Jews themselves”. 

In another post about the demolition of a school building in the West Bank, Žemaitaitis quoted an antisemitic nursery rhyme that encourages children to kill a wounded Jew. 

“I want to give you a chance, dear Jews of Israel, to apologise to Palestine and the EU for your disgusting actions in a foreign country,” he wrote. “And I will repeat, ‘After such events, it is no wonder why such sayings are born: A Jew climbed a ladder and fell by accident. Take a stick, children, and kill that Jew.’” 

The legislator, who frequently posts about the war in Gaza on social media, resigned from Lithuania’s parliament in April 2024 after the country’s Constitutional Court found his rhetoric had violated his oath and its Constitution. 

But he was re-elected in October 2024, and his party joined the country’s new coalition government led by the Social Democrats. 

Žemaitaitis and his lawyer weren’t present during the ruling on Thursday in Vilnius and are expected to seek an appeal. He told reporters after the ruling that “everybody understands that this is a politicised decision”, according to the Associated Press. 

“Any form of antisemitism, hate speech, or Holocaust belittling is unacceptable to us and incompatible with our values,” wrote the Social Democrats party in a post on Facebook following the ruling. “We respect the decision of the court. Together we point out that this decision is not yet final.”