Lithuania government to include party whose leader is on trial for antisemitism

By Andrius Sytas

Lithuania's Social Democrats, winners of last month's parliamentary election, defended on Saturday their decision to form a coalition government with a populist party whose leader is standing trial over alleged antisemitic statements.

Nemunas Dawn party founder and head Remigijus Zemaitaitis resigned from parliament in April, ahead of an impeachment vote, after the Constitutional Court ruled he had broken his oath by stirring up hatred against Jews in social media posts last year.

Zemaitaitis went on criminal trial over the posts in September, charged with "attempting to create hostility, and provoking intolerance, towards Jews", and with playing down the Holocaust in Lithuania.

Zemaitaitis has said the posts were not antisemitic and denies wrongdoing.

He will not serve in the cabinet himself but his party will lead three of the government's 14 ministries, among them the Justice Ministry, said Social Democrat deputy leader and designated Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas.

Paluckas told reporters joining forces with Nemunas Dawn was the only way to have a "sustainable" coalition and said his party was ready to explain its decision to the country's international partners.

"Some claim the whole Nemunas Dawn party is antisemitic - we don't see it like that," Paluckas said. "There is no place for antisemitism, neither in the Social Democrat party nor its government."

Democratic U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, the outgoing chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Friday that including Zemaitaitis' party in the government "undermines the core values that unite our nations".

The chair of the German parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael Roth, said "alliance with an antisemitic party is incompatible with our values".

The Social Democrat-led alliance, which also includes the For Lithuania party, is set to hold 84 seats in the 141-member parliament, above the 71 seats required for a majority.

During the election campaign, both the Social Democrats and the second-placed centre-right Homeland Union said they would refrain from forming a ruling coalition with Nemunas Dawn, which came third in the election.

The new government is expected to be sworn into office in December.