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A pre-trial investigation into hate speech was launched due to A. Valinskas’ interview with delfi.lt, where, commenting on the election results, he claimed that people like V. Tomaševskis should be shot.
“Tomaševskis is a beetle of absolute color who, receiving funding for his party from the Lithuanian state budget, is an anti-state. Anyway, those should be shot. One year at a time. Start with that,” said A. Valinskas.
This excerpt is no longer available in a publicly available interview, but can be found filmed from an online interview.
A pre-trial investigation is initiated by virtue of an article of the Penal Code that establishes the responsibility of those who publicly incite violence, physically dealing with a group of people or a person belonging to them because of age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, race, nationality, language, origin or other characteristics. This is punishable by up to three years in prison.
V. Tomaševskis: the words will be evaluated by the court
V. Tomaševskis himself had planned to request these statements from the forces of order.
“It just came to our attention then. We will respond accordingly according to the Criminal Liability Code,” the politician told BNS.
“It is obvious to everyone present that the court will evaluate. This has probably not been the case in Lithuania for 30 years,” said the politician.
Piotr Zgorzelski, Vice President of the Polish Seimas, addressed the President of the Lithuanian Seimas Viktoras Pranckietis regarding the speech and said he was saddened by the hate speech of the former Seimas president A. Valinskas.
“While I will always defend the right to criticism as the basis of a free democratic state, I believe that its limit is the promotion of violence, even if, and perhaps especially, when it comes to the biggest political competitor,” the statement read .
Mr. Zgorzelski stated that he wanted to draw the attention of V. Pranckietis to this statement.
Political scientist: this may have the opposite effect
Vytautas Magnus University political scientist Andžejus Pukštas told BNS that although A. Valinskas emphasized the difference between the Polish community and V. Tomaševskis’s party in his interview, his words should definitely be considered as incitement to hatred.
“There is no incitement on the basis of nationality, because A. Valinskas distances himself from criticism from the entire Polish community, he says he criticizes V. Tomaševskis and V. Tomaševskis’s party. But it is probably an incitement to the use of the force, an incitement to hatred and it is unequivocal, ”said the political scientist.
According to him, both this statement and Laisvės TV’s agitation against LLRA-KŠS can have the opposite effect and lead to increased tensions and fragmentation of society.
“Here, those boundaries are very slippery between national hatred, between hatred in general. And what today, and in recent days (happening – BNS), perhaps V. Tomaszewski even uses the fact that he is being attacked. I think that sometimes with such actions we achieve the opposite effect, so that resistance in society grows even more ”, said the political scientist.
He also pointed out that more attention should be paid to the education and integration of the Lithuanian Polish community, and this would be a more effective way to change the political views of this community than fierce criticism of the political force they elect.
“We may be dissatisfied with the civic positions of the Polish national minority, with their approach to certain democratic processes, but there is no magic wand here to touch and the situation will improve.” There is a long process here: inculcating the national community, a certain group of people, to improve the situation and the political climate in a separate region, the south-east of Lithuania. But I don’t think that such spontaneous actions, such as those organized by Andrius Tapinas or this one, who teaches V. Tomaševskis in public space, can change the situation ”, said A. Pukštas.
LLRA-KŠS raised 4.82% during the Seimas elections. votes and not exceeding 5%. the cartel did not enter the Seimas in the multi-member constituency. During the first round, two LLRA-KŠS candidates were elected to the Seimas in one-member electoral districts. Two more candidates from this party went to the second round.
They have appealed to the Central Election Commission with a request to declare invalid the results of the Seimas elections in a multi-member constituency.
The party claims that due to the campaign of “Laisvės TV” and its founder A. Tapinas against the party leader and the party, the law on elections to the Seimas was seriously violated.
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