The Lithuanian Jewish Community, uniting 32 domestic and international organizations, urges president of the Republic of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, to defend the principles embedded in the Lithuanian constitution and to prevent the anti-Semitic forces represented by the political party Nemuno Aušra from becoming part of the new ruling coalition and government.
Nemuno Aušra was founded and is led by Remigijus Žemaitaitis, who was deemed by the Constitutional Court to have breached his parliamentary oath and grossly violated the constitution through anti-Semitic statements and incitement of ethnic hatred. Due to a loophole in the law, he evaded accountability and continues to cynically deny the decision of the highest judicial authority, defaming the judges who made this ruling, and thereby undermining Lithuania’s status as a state under the rule of law on the international stage.
The LJC draws attention to the fact that there is currently an ongoing criminal case in the court of first instance where Žemaitaitis is charged with anti-Semitic remarks and incitement of ethnic hatred.
This individual’s statements deny and distort the Holocaust and attempt to rewrite Lithuania’s history, inciting Lithuanians against their fellow Jewish citizens. These actions are not one-off “citations of folklore,” as some political figures have tried to argue. This is in fact a systematic campaign which has triggered a wave of anti-Semitism in the country, leaving the small Lithuanian Jewish Community feeling humiliated and unsafe.
Even more worrying is the number of votes cast for this party led by an acknowledged anti-Semite in parliamentary elections, which might reflect the larger extent of latent anti-Semitism in Lithuania. It naturally raises the question: will Mr. Žemaitaitis’s followers, tacitly backed by the president, initiate pogroms reminiscent of those that the oldest members of our community still remember and now observe with horror in other European countries?
The involvement of an anti-Semite in the ruling coalition and government activities also discredits Lithuania in the eyes of its foreign partners whose support is vitally important to our nation and citizens in these geopolitically challenging times.
The LJC recalls that international organizations such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, FRA (the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have designated anti-Semitism as a crime. Lithuania has signed cooperation agreements with these organizations and is obliged to adhere to those agreements.
Therefore the LJC urges the president to honor the oath he made at his inauguration and to protect the rights of all Lithuanian citizens including Jews as stipulated in Article 29 of the Lithuanian constitution: “All people shall be equal before the law, the court and other state institutions or officials. Human rights shall not be restricted, nor shall any privileges be granted on the grounds of gender, race, nationality, language, origin, social status, religion, beliefs or opinions,” and Article 26, which states: “Every person shall have the right to freely choose any religion or belief and, either alone or in community with others, publicly or privately, to profess his faith, practice his religion or engage in its teaching“.
The board of the Lithuanian Jewish Community