A Vilnius district court has delivered a landmark verdict against Remigijus Žemaitaitis, leader of the coalition partner Nemuno Aušra party, convicting him Thursday for antisemitic hate speech and Holocaust minimization. The court imposed a €5,000 fine—significantly below prosecutors’ requested €51,000 penalty—for comments deemed to have “incited hatred against Jews” and “grossly downplayed Nazi Germany’s crimes.
The case centered on inflammatory social media posts from May-June 2023, including one comparing the demolition of Palestinian schools to “pastime” activities for Lithuanian Jews, alongside antisemitic nursery rhymes and historically distorted World War II references. Judge Nida Vigelienė condemned Žemaitaitis’s language as “degrading, violating human dignity and demonstrating hatred.”
Despite having resigned from parliament in 2024 following a constitutional court ruling that he violated his oath, Žemaitaitis returned to politics through elections last year. His populist party subsequently joined the center-left Social Democrats’ governing coalition, though he holds no cabinet position.
The convicted leader, absent during proceedings, denounced the verdict as “politicized” and plans to appeal. Meanwhile, the Social Democrats issued a Facebook statement condemning antisemitism and Holocaust denial as incompatible with party values, while acknowledging the non-final status of the ruling.