by Gercas Žakas, chairman, Kaunas Jewish Community, writing in the newspaper Kauno diena
After Remigijus Žemaitaitis’s party Nemuno aušra [Dawn of the Nieman River] received significant support from voters at the polls in the first round of voting, the Kaunas Jewish Community has been watching to see what the final outcome of elections to parliament will be. We have observed even before the second round of voting how the rhetoric of the political parties has changed regarding Žemaitaitis.
It would be hard to find a more cynical character. A demagogue and a liar. Divisive and slinging mud. His speeches contain many lies and accusations against his opponents and ethnic minorities of imaginary crimes. Now he’s trying to squirm out of the situation, again lyving that he hasn’t said anything bad about Lithuanian Jews. If some party nonetheless does enter into a coalition government with him, it would demonstrate that there are no principles nor values when it comes to the struggle for power. That nothing is sacred.
Read Žemaitaitis’s social media posts. In May of last year he posted on facebook: “For how much longer will our politicians go down on bended knee to the Jews who murdered our people, contributed to the hunting down and torture of Lithuanians and the extermination of our country;” “There was a Jewish Holocaust, but there was a bigger Holocaust of Lithuanians in Lithuania. The murder and torture of Lithuanians, the rape of women and the separation of children from their parents was a pleasant attraction and a joyous moment” and “The Lithuanian nation must never forget the Jews and Russians who contributed so greatly to the destruction of our people.”
He couldn’t resist posting again in July of last year: “So to which group do you ascribe yourself? As I support the Ukraine in the war with Russia, as we all understand that [the Ukraine] has been attacked, so we understand that the country is being destroyed, but it is being destroyed thanks to the member-states of NATO and the EU! And also thanks to US president Joe Biden who sold the Ukraine to Putin on June 16, 2021.”
This post of his on facebook says a lot about Žemaitaitis’s patriotism and why he is so resolute about winning in parliamentary elections, in response to a previous post asking what he would do if war broke out in Lithuania: “First I would get my family out and I would give the primary coordinates of the apartments of those pigs of the majority in order to have them blown up!” These are only a portion of his comments which he is attempting to call jokes now or pretending that he was misunderstood by everyone who failed to understand what he actually meant.
Lithuania’s Constitutional Court didn’t make an arbitrary decision in spring of this year when they found member of parliament Žemaitaitis had broken his oath of office and violated the constitution based on the fact his facebook posts were anti-Semitic and thus demeaned a group of people based on their ethnicity, and had sown hatred.
The Lithuanian constitution guarantees the right of the individual to hold beliefs and express them freely, but forbids doing harm to the dignity of others, violating their equal rights under the law, sowing discord and demonstrating disrespect or hatred.
While the Kaunas Jewish Community isn’t prejudiced against any political party, we cannot treat with tolerance the statements Žemaitaitis has made. This wasn’t merely his personal opinion, in my opinion. It was a public call to murder, and I quote: “Children, take a stick and beat that little Jew to death.” It was the same kind of Nazi, Goebbelsesque rhetoric used by Žemaitaitis that led to the exterminate of the vast majority of Lithuanian Jews during World War II, including 50,000 Jewish children.
The Kaunas Jewish Community would like to point out that political parties cannot be separated from the statements of their leaders and the views they express. If you follow this kind of person, it means that your thoughts, values and world-view agree with his.
I would like to comment as well on some other participants in the political arena. The speech coming from Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda and his advisors is shocking. Before, they said there wasn’t even any discussion about Žemaitaitis participating in a coalition government. Now the tone has softened to: if Žemaitaitis changes his rhetoric, and apologizes to the Jews… It’s impossible to understand the logic of the president here, especially when we know the findings of the Constitutional Court who verdict was so very clear. This sort of hypocrisy is horrifying and sad.
I would like to say that we don’t need his apology. His love or hate is not necessary. What we need is that he not divide Lithuania, not incite hatred against Jews. We cannot erase nor forget that he used anti-Semitic rhetoric as a spring-board for his election.
Paraphrasing the aphorism recalled by Andrius Navickas, if you give a cannibal a knife and fork, he’s still a cannibal.