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

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