Photo: Remigijus Žemaitaitis, © 2023 ELTA/Dainius Labutis
On Tuesday Lithuanian media reported Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis, under fire for anti-Semitic comments he posted to facebook, had formed a new political party following his expulsion from his former party:
Žemaitaitis Claims Formed New Party
Parliamentarian Remigijus Žemaitaitis, now facing impeachment proceedings in parliament for anti-Semitic statements, says he and fellow travellers have formed a new party. The controversial member of parliament says the political entity being formed will participate in all upcoming elections.
“We plan to participate in all of them,” Žemaitaitis told ELTA.
He was reluctant to share more details about the new political organization. He did say the political party had been formed already. He said they did this immediately following his expulsion from the Law and Justice Party because of anti-Semitic statements made. That was back in May.
“When they suspended my membership I left the party and we created our own party,” he said.
The Lithuanian Justice Ministry told ELTA they didn’t have any information about the registration of a new political party in Lithuania since the end of spring this year.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
On Wednesday Lithuanian media reported the ruling majority in the Lithuanian parliament had begun impeachment proceedings against Žemaitaitis for removing him as a legislator. The special commission they formed for this purpose is composed entirely of members from the ruling coalition with opposition parties boycotting the effort.
Full story in Lithuanian here.
In his initial facebook posts early this spring, Žemaitaitis also made disparaging remarks about Russians, calling them animals, which technically violates the Lithuanian law on sowing ethnic discord, but which were roundly ignored by his fellow members of parliament and Lithuanian politicians.