Remigijus Žemaitaitis, leader of the Nemunas Dawn party, on Tuesday downplayed the announcement by the Prosecutor General’s Office that they will investigate whether the politician defamed Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė on social media.
“Let them file as many complaints as they want. The more complaints from conservatives, the better for me,” Žemaitaitis told reporters on Tuesday.
“I don’t mind if they open 30 [investigations]. The people aren’t stupid [...], they can see what’s going on,” he added.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said in a press release earlier on Tuesday that the material related to Šimonytė’s complaint was added to an ongoing pre-trial investigation into possible incitement of hatred.
The probe was launched last week after Žemaitaitis’ Facebook post in which he called on people to gather outside the home of Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania’s first post-independence leader and now honorary chairman of the conservative Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats.
Žemaitaitis shared the post on November 10 in response to activists’ plans to stage a rally outside the parliament building against Nemunas Dawn’s inclusion in the new ruling coalition.
Accusing the conservatives of organising unrest, Žemaitaitis wrote: “Are we sure that Ingrida Šimonytė and her leftists will not provoke some attacks against Samogitians? They have experience!!!”
Žemaitaitis had initially written “Jews” instead of “Samogitians” but later amended the post, saying that he had made a mistake.
On Tuesday, the politician said that he could also file complaints about some of Šimonytė’s social media posts but added that he has more important things to do.
“I’ve got plenty of work to do. She has nothing to do – she writes complaints,” the Nemunas Dawn leader said.
Žemaitaitis is also currently on trial for incitement to hatred against Jews.
The Constitutional Court has found Žemaitaitis to have broken his oath and grossly violated the constitution because of his public statements about Jews and Israel.
Following the ruling, the Nemunas Dawn leader resigned as a member of the previous parliament to avoid impeachment, which enabled him to run for president and parliament in this year’s elections.
The MP denies the anti-Semitism charges, saying that in his posts, he criticised Israel rather than expressing hatred toward the Jewish people.
A protest against his participation in the ruling coalition was held outside the parliament last week, and another is planned this Thursday.
“This is really great, terrific. It’s a good thing,” Žemaitaitis told reporters. “The more people rally against us, the better it is for us.”
“Show me another politician in Lithuania who has ever had so many people gather against him – there’s none. It means they respect us, maybe they even fear us. You have to respect them too; I do,” he added.
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