Lithuania's ex-MP Zemaitaitis turns to Strasbourg court over impeachment process

KAUNAS – Remigijus Zemaitaitis, leader of the Dawn of the Nemunas party, said on Monday that he has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the impeachment proceedings against him in the Lithuanian parliament.

The former MP said he is asking the court to look into whether his rights to freedom of expression were violated while assessing his statements about Israel and Jews in Lithuania.

In his petition to the ECHR, Zemaitaitis argues that Lithuania violated his right to freedom of expression when the Seimas set up an impeachment commission over his statements and later asked the Constitutional Court to evaluate those statements, and when the court subsequently ruled that he had violated his oath as an MP.

The politician claims that he was persecuted by state institutions for expressing his views on the Israel-Hamas conflict that were unacceptable to the political elite.

He also says that he has fallen victim to "cancel culture."

"It is regrettable that during the four years of liberal and conservative rule, Lithuania has become a country where critics of the government or those who deviate from the conservatives' political line are drowned in 'cancel culture'," Zemaitaitis said in his statement on Monday. 

"It does not matter whether you are an ordinary citizen or Justinas Marcinkevicius. They tried to do the same with me." 

"I feel it is my duty to fight for the right to have an opinion and to express it. And not only for myself. Above all, for the people of Lithuania not to be afraid to speak out and criticize the government," he added. 

The Constitutional Court earlier this year ruled that Zemaitaitis broke his oath as an MP and violated the Constitution by making anti-Semitic statements. He avoided impeachment by resigning from the Seimas in April.

In his Facebook posts in June 2023, Zemaitaitis expressed anger over Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte's visit to Israel and accused Jews of deporting and killing Lithuanians. Commenting on the news of Israel's demolition of a Palestinian school, he likened Israel to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is waging war in Ukraine, and quoted an anti-Semitic folk counting-out rhyme.  

Zemaitaitis denied that his statements were anti-Semitic, but the Constitutional Court ruled that they "contain, among other things, degrading descriptions of people belonging to an ethnically distinct group, and quote a counting-out rhyme (...) depicting violence against Jewish people, mocking them".

The court stated that by using such descriptions, quotes and statements that incite intolerance between ethnic minorities and deny the Holocaust, the politician demonstrated hatred toward an ethnically distinct group.