THE social democrat Gintautas Paloutskas was officially appointed today as prime minister of Lithuania – an EU-NATO Baltic state and close supporter of Ukraine – whose coalition, however, includes a party marred by accusations of anti-Semitism.

Paloutska’s appointment was approved by a vote in parliament. Then President Gitanas Nausenda officially appointed him to this position.

THE new prime minister who now has 15 days to form his government, had announced that he was going to increase defense spending in his country, which lies between the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus.

He promised to look after Lithuania’s image, which has been tarnished by the inclusion in the governing coalition of the populist Dawn of the Nemunas party, whose leader is accused of anti-Semitic statements.

At the end of the meeting with the president, Paloutskas appointed the majority of candidates to his government but refused to mention those proposed by the Dawn of Nemunas party.

President Nausenda had warned that he would not accept any member of this party to occupy a ministerial position.

In the new cabinet, the post of head of diplomacy is expected to return to Kestutis Budris, a former intelligence officer and current national security adviser to the president, while Social Democrat MP Dovile Sakaliene is expected to take over the defense ministry.

The 45-year-old Paloutskas, its deputy head Social Democratic Party (LSDP) will take over the presidency of the future government after Vilija Blinkevičute, the head of the Social Democrats’ wing, decided not to run for the post following her party’s victory in last month’s parliamentary elections.

During today’s vote, Paloutskas received the support of 88 MPs out of a total of 141.

In addition to the Dawn of Nemunas party, the Social Democrats allied themselves with the Democratic Union “In the name of Lithuania”.

The party leader The Dawn of NemunasRemigius Zemaitaitis, is accused of inciting hatred after he recited an anti-Semitic verse about the killing of Jews while denouncing Israeli government policy in 2023.

He has also been criticized for other remarks that were seen as downplaying the Holocaust during which almost the entire pre-war Jewish Lithuanian community was exterminated between 1941 and 1944.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the attorney general asked parliament to lift the parliamentary immunity of Zemaitaitis, who rejects the charges and says he supports efforts to combat anti-Semitism.

A demonstration has been announced for this evening in front of the parliament to denounce the presence of the Dawn of Nemunas party in the coalition that is called to govern. A previous protest had taken place last week.