OPINION | ANTISEMITISM | HUMAN RIGHTS
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by Vilma Fiokla Kiurė
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OPINION
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Societal antibodies against a sudden rise in national antisemitism seem to have taken a rather notable hit in Lithuania since the sudden, and some would say, meteoric rise, of populist politician Remigijus Žemaitaitis. Just over one year ago, his new populist party came into being with an overt antisemitic component best known from its leader’s remarks on social media that combine classic Baltic Holocaust-based antisemitism with anti-Israel based bias in a new synthesis of prejudice against our country’s tiny Jewish minority, now numbering less than three thousand souls. It is called the “Dawn of Nemunas Political Party” (in Lithuanian: “Politinė partija “Nemuno Aušra” — PPNA), often shortened to “Dawn of Nemunas” or “Nemunas Dawn” (Lithuanian: Nemuno aušra — NA). It has become extremely popular and has not only entered parliament (the Seimas), but was been accepted in December, following elections in November, as coalition partner for the winning Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) led by the current prime minister, Gintautas Paluckas. Some of the ins-and-outs have been sumarized in Defending History.

Banner of Žemaitaitis new (and successful) populist, antisemitic party in the recent parliamentary elections. The “Pillars of Gediminas” symbol in the center of the logo, while neutral in the context of various government functions, has come to assume a connotation of far-right extremism when employed by political groups and organizations.
There has been, as ever, very diverse reaction. Some political scientists have thrown up their hands. Others, dismayed by the rapid decline of Lithuania’s stature in Western democratic circles, have hastened to call it a clandestine Kremlin project designed to discredit Lithuania, but international media has been more circumspect. Indeed, the New York Times coverage by veteran East European correspondent Andrew Higgins put it into the context of analogous developments in other European countries, and concluded his report with a quote from Defending History’s editor.
Currently, the newly baked populist party with the word “aušra” (‘dawn’) in its name, which says a lot about the nature of this political force, is not only a parliamentary but also a co-ruling party with representatives in the government. The Social Democrats, who won the elections, invited Žemaitaitis’ party to a coalition. As a result, a wave of protests swept across the country, with thousands of rallies held in the capital. But the protesters did not achieve their goals, R. Žemaitaitis remained in the coalition and continues to enjoy the high life of Lithuanian political life in our charming capital, Vilnius.
The entire epic of Remigijus Žemaitaitis seems like a bad dream, like a misunderstanding. When the war broke out in Ukraine, he was asked by a commenter on the social network Facebook, “How many would flee if the war moved to Lithuania?”, and he replied: “I would be the first to transport my family and give the coordinates of where to blow up the houses and property of most of those little pigs.” He called then Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen “little pigs.” A scandal broke out over Žemaitaitis’s intention to collaborate in the event of war.
Žemaitaitis hasin fact previously expressed sympathy for the Kremlin. In 2018, he gave an interview to the Russian propaganda tool, the newspaper “Ekspress nedelia”in which he emphasized his opposition to sanctions against the Russian Federation.
After the terrorist attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Žemaitaitis became preoccupied with the topic of Jews. He posted the following posts on the social network Facebook, I quote:
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“It turns out that besides Putin, other animals have appeared in the world — ISRAEL”.
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“We, the Lithuanian people, must never forget the Jews and Russians, who very actively contributed to the DESTRUCTION of our NATION!”.
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“Maybe next time Israel will drop a bomb on a Palestinian hospital with the inscription we blew it up because we were afraid they would attack us […]. I WANT TO GIVE YOU A CHANCE, DEAR JEWS OF ISRAEL, TO APOLOGIZE TO PALESTINE AND THE EU FOR YOUR DISGUSTING ACTIONS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 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, children, a stick and kill that Jew.” (see Defending History’s full (and footnote annotated) English translation of the original May 2023 Facebook post.)
For these statements, a criminal case was opened against R. Žemaitaitis for inciting hatred against Jews under Lithuanian law proscribing incitement of hate against minorities.
Žemaitaitis was also indicted and impeached for these recordings – the Constitutional Court recognized in April 2023 that he had broken the oath of a member of the Seimas and violated the Constitution. After this court decision, R. Žemaitaitis quickly renounced his mandate as a member of the Seimas in order to prevent the legal eventuality of Lithuanian law precluding him from another run for parliament. Instead he ran for president, and received 9.33% of the popular vote during last May’s presidential election. In the subsequent parliamentary election of October 2024, his Dawn of Nemunas party came in third place overall in the election, receiving about 15% of the vote and securing 20 seats in parliament.
In other words, unfortunately, anti-Semitic statements and the intention to collaborate did not reduce Žemaitaitis’ popularity, but on the contrary — they increased it. And this is a very sad fact. He not only became a member of the Seimas again, but, as I mentioned, thanks to the Social Democrats’ decision to include his party in their ruling coalition, he became vastly more influential.
The left’s love for antisemites seems strange to many liberals, but it is no longer surprising. Even the radical left, who formally reject antisemitism, silently support Žemaitaitis’ statements. Take, for example, Andrius Mažeika, an active supporter of anti-Israel positions in Lithuania, at the Left’s conference “Culture, Society and Emancipation.” In his paper, “Ukraine – Palestine. The Left, Measured from the Right” expounds on the results of the presidential elections and rejoices rather uncritically in Žemaitaitis’s success: “Whatever the real motives of these candidates, we cannot deny the problems and indisputable facts they have boldly raised.”
Asnoted, almost fifteen percent of voters voted for Žemaitaitis, his party, in the recent elections to the Seimas. “Nemunas Aušra” received twenty Seimas seats — to call it a worrying trend would be understatement.
Already during the first session in the Seimas, the parliamentarians of “Nemunas Aušra” showed their face. They voted against amendments to the law on the synchronization of electricity networks with Europe. It is easy for those of us from this part of the world to understand whose interests they are defending. For readers not oriented to things here, that means a certain bear of a huge imperialist neighbor to the east is applauding both the rise of national discord and economic changes that the Kremlin’s schemers can only be applauding.. Amendments that are vital for Lithuania were adopted only thanks to the votes of the opposition. The same, incidentally, was true with the vote on the resolution supporting the protesters in Georgia, if any further confirmation is needed.

Does this Russian publication (Экспресс-неделя of 10 Sept. 2018) give a missing subtext to the entire saga? Text reads: “Read on p. 16: R. Žemaitaitis says “I oppose anti-Russian sanctions” . . .
So what is next?