In the 2016 elections, Žemaitaitis headed the electoral list of Order and Justice.[15] He was elected as MP representing the single-seat constituency of Southern Samogitia,[16] a new name for the Šilalė district, now defined to exclude Šilutė.[17] After these elections, the party's leader Rolandas Paksas resigned. Žemaitaitis became the interim leader of the party. Order and Justice joined the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union-led government in late 2018.[18] In September 2018, according to the coalition's agreement, Žemaitaitis was appointed as one of the Deputy Speakers of the Seimas.[3] Two months later, the Order and Justice parliamentary group dissolved itself and Žemaitaitis became an unaffiliated member of Seimas.
In October 2019, after Žemaitaitis backed an effort to strip Viktoras Pranckietis of his position as Speaker of the Seimas, the leader of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union party Ramūnas Karbauskis urged Žemaitaitis to resign from his Deputy Speaker position, calling the move a "betrayal" of the ruling coalition.[19] The next month, Žemaitaitis was removed from his Deputy Speaker position after a vote of no confidence, with 72 MPs for removal and 5 against.[4]
On 27 January 2024, Žemaitaitis announced that he would run as a candidate in the 2024 presidential election.[21] He finished in fourth place overall, receiving 9.21% of the vote in the first round of the election held on 12 May.[22]
Žemaitaitis participated in the 2024 parliamentary election as the leader of the Dawn of Nemunas party. He received 47.83% of the vote in the Kelmė–Šilalė constituency and was promptly elected in the first round.[23] The party came in third place overall, receiving 14.97% of the vote and securing 20 members in parliament. Dawn of Nemunas received a plurality of the vote in much of western Lithuania (Samogitia and Lithuania Minor).[24] Following the election, the Dawn of Nemunas and Union of Democrats "For Lithuania" parties formed a ruling coalition led by the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, which finished first overall.[10][25]
Controversies
In September 2018, while giving an interview to a Russian-language weekly newspaper Ekspress nedelya, Žemaitaitis stated that he was against what he referred to as "anti-Russian sanctions" and advocated for talks.[26][27]
In November 2022, while going for a visit to Belarus, under the invitation of Žemaitaitis, lawmaker and member of the far-right party Alternative for GermanyPetr Bystron visited Lithuania.[28]
Antisemitism
Between May and June 2023, Žemaitaitis publicly made five posts on Facebook that were condemned as anti-Semitic.[29] The first two posts on 8 May criticised the state of Israel for human rights violations against Palestinians, and in particular the destruction of an EU-funded school in the West Bank.[30][31] Both of these posts quoted a well-known Lithuanian rhyme about murdering Jews.[a] A later post on 13 June was written in response to a visit to Israel by Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė. In this post, Žemaitaitis falsely claimed that a 1944 massacre in the village of Pirčiupiai was committed by Jews and Russians instead of its actual perpetrators, the Nazi German Schutzstaffel (SS), and further wrote that Lithuanians had suffered a greater Holocaust than Jews had.[30] Žemaitaitis later stated that he had been mistaken about Pirčiupiai and had meant to refer to another event.[30]
The comments were strongly criticised and condemned by Lithuanian politicians, the Lithuanian Jewish community, and a number of ambassadors in Lithuania. On 19 May 2023, Freedom and Justice temporarily suspended Žemaitaitis' membership in party due to his antisemitic statements.[32] Before the vote to start impeachment proceedings agains him, Žemaitaitis left the party and founded the Dawn of Nemunas.[33] During his remarks in Parliament, Žemaitaitis asserted that his statements were targeted towards Israel's actions against Palestinians, before the start of the 2023 war,[34] and afterwards clarified that he would support a death sentence for Benjamin Netanyahu.[35] He denounced the investigations into them as political repression and character assassination.[34] In April 2024, the Constitutional Court decided that the politician had broken his oath as a member of Seimas and violated the country's Constitution,[36] deeming the statements antisemitic.[29] Right after that, in order to avoid the vote on removal from the parliament, Žemaitaitis resigned as the member of the Seimas.[37][2] Žemaitaitis lodged an appeal in the European Court of Human Rights against Lithuania over his impeachment procedures and the ruling.[38]
Following the 2024 Lithuanian parliamentary election, the decision of the victorious Social Democrats to invite Dawn of Nemunas into the new ruling coalition provoked local and international backlash focusing on Žemaitaitis' past statements. Politicians in the United States, Germany, Poland, and Israel criticised the decision to include Dawn of Nemunas, as did civil society groups and protesters in Lithuania.[39][40] Žemaitaitis reacted by claiming that the international reactions had been instigated by his political opponents.[41] He also sent a letter to ambassadors of NATO and EU countries, as well as Israel, stating that he is not anti-Semitic, simply critical of Israel's actions, and that he believes in equality and human dignity.[42] In the letter he mentioned that he had met with the Jewish community in Kaunas during the campaign to express his regret and respect.[42]
Other investigations in 2024
On 19 November 2024, the Prosecutor's Office began investigation into alleged defamation of Ingrida Šimonytė made by the politician on Facebook.[43]
In November 2024, the Lithuanian Police had began investigation of another Facebook post made by Žemaitaitis, on grounds of BK 170.2 pertaining to ethnic hatred.[44] In the post he called for protestors to gather with candles in front of the home of Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania's first post-Soviet leader and the former head of the opposing Homeland Union party. This post was made as a response to a protest that was planned to be held in Independence Square in Vilnius against the inclusion of Dawn of Nemunas in the ruling Seimas coalition.[45]
^Lithuanian: Lipo žydas kopėčiom ir nukrito netyčiom. Imkit, vaikai, pagaliuką ir užmuškit tą žyduką, lit. 'A Jew was climbing the ladder and accidentally fell off; take a stick, kids, and kill that little Jew.'
^ abConstitutional Court of Lithuania (25 April 2024). "KT: Seimo narys Remigijus Žemaitaitis sulaužė priesaiką ir šiurkščiai pažeidė Konstituciją" (in Lithuanian). Teise.Pro. Retrieved 4 November 2024. Remdamasis tuo, kas nustatyta šioje konstitucinės justicijos byloje, Konstitucinis Teismas konstatavo, kad Seimo narys R. Žemaitaitis sąmoningai, tikslingai ir sistemingai visuomenės informavimo priemonėse, t. y. viešai, paskelbė pasisakymus, kuriais žemino tautiniu pagrindu išskiriamai visuomenės daliai priklausančių asmenų orumą ir taip demonstravo neapykantą šiems asmenims.
