Lithuanian president to refuse ministers from party whose leader is on trial for antisemitism

By Andrius Sytas

Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda on Monday criticised the Social Democrats' decision to form a government with a party whose leader is accused of antisemitic statements and said he would block its ministers from taking power.

The Social Democrats, the winners in October's general election, signed a coalition agreement on Monday with the Nemunas Dawn and For Lithuania parties, gaining control of 86 seats in the 141-member parliament, above the 71 seats required for a majority.

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.

“I think a mistake has been made,” Nauseda told reporters in Vilnius. “A primitive, everyday antisemitism is taking hold in our country.”

The semi-executive Lithuanian president approves government ministers, and Nauseda said he would not allow anyone related to Nemunas Dawn into the cabinet.

Zemaitaitis has earlier said his posts were not antisemitic and has denied wrongdoing. On Monday, he said that voter support gives his party the right to be in the government.

The coalition agreement allows Nemunas Dawn to nominate the heads of three of the government's 14 ministries, among them the Justice Ministry.

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

Social Democrat deputy leader and its designated prime ministerial candidate Gintautas Paluckas blamed any backlash on "misquotes in social networks or in the media".

"The factual situation is that, in the Social Democrat-led government and in its coalition, there is no antisemitism and there will not be any," he told reporters on Monday.

The Social Democrat leadership pledged to avoid having Nemunas Dawn in its government during the election.

Nearly all of Lithuania’s Jewish community of about 200,000 people was shot by Nazi Germans during World War II and buried in mass graves.

Former Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas apologised in Israel’s parliament in 1995 for the fact that some Lithuanians contributed to the killings.

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