Lithuania's Social Democrats plan coalition gov’t with populists
Reuters/em
08.11.2024, 13:36
The Social Democrats have been in talks with several parties to form a coalition. Photo: Augustas Didžgalvis via Wikimedia Commons
podpis źródła zdjęcia
Lithuania's Social Democrats, who won last month's parliamentary election, said on Friday that they had decided to include a populist party in a new coalition government whose leader is standing trial for alleged antisemitic statements.
Nemunas Dawn Party founder and leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis resigned from parliament in April after the Constitutional Court ruled that he had broken his oath by stirring up hatred against Jews in social media last year.
Žemaitaitis in September went on trial over the social media posts, charged with inciting antisemitic hatred and playing down the Holocaust. He has said that the posts were not antisemitic and denies any wrongdoing.
It was not immediately clear if Žemaitaitis himself would be appointed to the cabinet.
The Social Democrats have been in talks with several parties to form a coalition after they won 52 seats in the 141-member parliament, defeating the center-right Homeland Union with just 28 seats.
In the election campaign, both parties said they would refrain from including Nemunas Dawn, which took third place with 20 seats, in any coalition they led.
The Social Democrats are also in talks with the For Lithuania Party, which holds 12 seats in the new parliament.
Together, the three parties would hold 84 seats, above the 71 seats required for a majority.
"The coalition would consist of three parties, the Social Democrats, For Lithuania and Nemunas Dawn," Social Democrat deputy leader and the party's proposed candidate for prime minister Gintautas Paluckas told reporters after meeting the leaders of the other two parties.
A coalition agreement could be signed next week, he said.
Paluckas said he was not bound by the pledge to sideline Nemunas Dawn, as it was made by the Social Democrats' leader Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, who declined to head the new government following the parliamentary vote.
"I have never said that Nemunas Dawn cannot be in coalition... Today you are talking to me (not Blinkevičiūtė)", Paluckas said.
