Skaisgirytė: The assessment of Žemaitaitis’s statements should not be left only to law enforcement

“I would not agree that it should be left only to law enforcement. Anti-Semitic statements are political enough and it is worth giving them a political assessment”, said A. Skaisgirytė while commenting on the debates in the Seimas to “Žinių radio”.

On the other hand, the advisor added, the top Lithuanian politicians have already had time to speak clearly about the statements of R. Žemaitaitis that outraged the international community.

“The President of Lithuania has spoken on this issue before (…) Assessments from the highest leaders of Lithuania are given”, said A. Skaisgirytė.

“How much other members of the Seimas should condemn or react in some other way is up to the Seimas.” However, such statements are completely unacceptable in a civilized country and least worthy of condemnation,” the presidential adviser added.

Last week, the special commission formed due to the impeachment of MP R. Žemaitaitis met for the first meeting, where they discussed the course of work. ELTA reminds that R. Žemaitaitis outraged the international community with his anti-Semitic statements. The politician accused the Jews of having carried out the Lithuanian holocaust.

R. Žemaitaitis has caused a stir with his statements on the Facebook social network before. The politician shared a video about a school demolished near Bethlehem, Palestine, Israel and stated that “besides Putin, another animal appeared in the world – Israel.”

The embassies of Israel, Germany, the USA and the Netherlands and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) quickly reacted to R. Žemaitaitis’s statements, condemning the Seimas member’s statements and demanding a public apology.

The General Prosecutor’s Office has started a pre-trial investigation into the MP’s anti-Semitic statements.

The head of the country has not received official information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) that would allow raising questions about the suitability of ambassadors Deividas Matulionis and Eitvydas Bajarūnas to continue their duties, says A. Skaisgirytė. According to her, one gets the impression that the ministry itself does not have concrete evidence to distrust diplomats or criticize their behavior.

“The president has said that he does not have any information that would allow him not to trust the ambassadors, both of them, although the accusations against them seem to be of a different nature. However, so far the investigations have not shown that there should be a different response to what they are being accused of,” A. Skaisgirytė told “Žinių radio” on Tuesday, evaluating the information that appeared in the public space some time ago that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has started official actions regarding the Lithuanian ambassador in the United Kingdom and ambassador to NATO.

“By the way, the story itself is very strange. It seems that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no tangible evidence that there is any kind of wrongdoing. If that evidence existed, of course, the situation would be completely different. However, so far at least the Presidency has not seen or received them,” she explained.

She indicated that the Presidency has not yet received a clear chronology of these events from the ministry, which was requested by the country’s leader.

“So far, we have not received any documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this topic. Maybe they will still come”, thought G. Nausėda’s advisor.

However, the presidential adviser emphasized that G. Nausėda met with NATO Ambassador D. Matulionis a couple of weeks ago and discussed the NATO summit held in the summer and its results. According to her, the diplomat’s assessment has not changed.

“I repeat once again – the president has no reason to distrust the Lithuanian ambassador to NATO”, emphasized A. Skaisgirytė.

Doubts about the suitability of diplomats to continue their duties arose after the news portal delfi.lt announced that, according to sources, the MFA received complaints about possible mobbing and abuse of official position by E. Bajarūnas. And D. Matulionis, the portal wrote, could have disobeyed the mandate of the state institutions and weakened Lithuania’s negotiating position as the NATO summit approached.

Although the head of the country repeated that he trusts diplomats, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova initiated official actions regarding ambassadors D. Matulionis and E. Bajarūnas. In addition, an audit of the representative funds of the embassy in London is carried out.