Lithuania ruling party to stay in coalition with group whose leader found guilty of hatred against Jews

Lithuania's Coalition Faces Scrutiny Amid Anti-Semitism Ruling

By Andrius ‌Sytas

VILNIUS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Lithuania's governing Social Democrats will remain in ‍coalition for ‌now with a populist junior partner whose leader was found guilty last ⁠week of incitement to hatred ‌against Jews and belittling the Holocaust.

The founder of the populist Nemunas Dawn party, Remigijus Zemaitaitis, was fined 5,000 euros ($5,800) last week for a series of social media ⁠posts that a court said falsely blamed Jews for historical crimes and promoted hostility towards ​them.

In his posts, Zemaitaitis blamed Jews for a "Holocaust ‌of Lithuanians" during World War Two, ⁠and quoted an old nursery rhyme with the line "take a stick, children, and kill the Jew". He has denied his comments broke the ​law and promised to appeal.

Social Democrats chairman Mindaugas Sinkevicius said on Tuesday his party would wait until appeals are exhausted in Zemaitaitis' case before deciding the future of the coalition.

"The verdict is not final, it ​has ‍not come into force", said ​Sinkevicius. "Even in the case of Zemaitaitis, we have to keep to the principle that until guilt is proven, until the courts have reached an unappealable decision, the accused still has means to prove his truths," he added.

Thousands gathered at the parliament in Vilnius in November 2024 and again ⁠in August this year to protest against Nemunas Dawn's inclusion in the government.

Sinkevicius told reporters the court verdict ​had no impact on the government's public approval ratings.

Zemaitaitis resigned from parliament in April 2024 after the Constitutional Court ruled that his comments about Jews had broken his oath. But he was ‌re-elected six months later, and his party joined the three-party coalition government led by the Social Democrats.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in VilniusEditing by Peter Graff)