Around 4,000 people gathered outside the Lithuanian parliament in Vilnius to protest against the inclusion of Nemunas Dawn and Remigijus Žemaitaitis, an MP accused of anti-Semitism, into the country’s ruling coalition.
“I have come to express my disagreement with the principles of coalition building. In particular, the inclusion of Nemunas Dawn, which discredits Lithuania in the international community,” a Vilnius resident told LRT.lt.
The Ten Minutes of Silence rally took place on the first day of the new Seimas session, with smaller protests taking place in the second-largest city of Kaunas and Tauragė in southwestern Lithuania.
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The protest was initiated by Justinas Žilinskas, a lawyer and writer, and several other activists.
“We are gathering to show that there are people who believe that there must be red lines and decency criteria in politics. One of them is zero tolerance of anti-Semitism”, the organisers said in a statement.
The various speeches in the Nepriklausomybės Square were also followed by a minute of silence to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.
Around 400 people gathered in Kaunas.
“This is my first political protest since the Soviet times, because it is important to me,” said Marija, a 65-year-old protester.
She said her ancestors were Jewish Litvaks, which made anti-Semitism an important issue for her. Unlike Lithuania, she said, the Soviet Union had anti-Semitic tendencies.
“Learning Hebrew was forbidden, and if you studied underground, you could be punished because you were an enemy of the people – a Zionist,” she said.
Another protester, 30-year-old Vaida, said the incoming coalition tarnishes the country’s international image.
“I came here because of the situation in the government, mainly, of course, because of the open statements of Žemaitaitis and how this makes our country look in the world,” she said.
Organisers of the protest stressed that they were not contesting the results of the elections, instead calling for the coalition to exclude the Nemunas Dawn party.
On Monday, the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, the Democrats “For Lithuania” and Nemunas Dawn signed a coalition agreement.
The courts are currently examining a criminal case in which Žemaitaitis is accused of inciting hatred against Jewish people.
Previously, the country’s Constitutional Court found Žemaitaitis guilty of breaking his oath of office and of a serious violation of the Constitution for his public statements about Jews and Israel.
Žemaitaitis rejects anti-Semitism accusations, saying he had only criticised Israel.
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