Remigijus Žemaitaitis

Remigijus Žemaitaitis was born on 30 May 1982 in the town of Šilutė, Lithuania.

In addition to his law degree, Žemaitaitis pursued graduate studies in economics at Vilnius University’s International Business School in the late 2000s, though he did not complete that Master’s program.

He earned a Master’s degree in law from Vilnius University’s Faculty of Law, graduating in 2005.

While serving as a Deputy Speaker of the Seimas (2018–2019), he received a higher pay than regular MPs – for context, the Seimas Speaker’s net monthly salary in 2024 was about €5,293, so a Deputy Speaker’s net salary is estimated around €4,800 per month (estimated).

He has served as a Member of the Seimas for over a decade (2009–2024 and again since late 2024). A rank-and-file Seimas member’s base salary in 2023 was around €2,180 net per month (set to rise to roughly €3,780 net from 2025).

In 2009, Žemaitaitis served as an advisor to Members of the European Parliament Rolandas Paksas and Juozas Imbrasas.

In 2007–2008, he worked as an adviser to the Mayor of Vilnius City.

From 2005 to 2007 he served as the assistant to the chairman (chief judge) of the Vilnius Regional Court.

In 2004–2005, Žemaitaitis worked at the Vilnius City 2nd District Court as a specialist and judge’s assistant.

In November 2023, Žemaitaitis announced the creation of a new political party “Nemuno Aušra” (Dawn of Nemunas) and was elected as its chairman.

On 6 June 2020, he was elected as the first chairman of the newly formed political party Freedom and Justice (Laisvė ir teisingumas), which was established by merging Order and Justice with other groups.

He served as one of the Deputy Speakers of the Seimas from late September 2018 until November 2019.

In December 2016, Remigijus Žemaitaitis was officially elected as the chairman of the Order and Justice party, having been its interim leader after Rolandas Paksas stepped down.

During the 2012–2016 term of the Seimas, Žemaitaitis served as the Chairman of the Parliament’s Economics Committee.

In the October 2024 parliamentary elections, Žemaitaitis’s newly founded party "Nemuno Aušra" placed third in the first round of voting, securing 15 seats in the Seimas.

In the October 2024 Seimas elections, as leader of the new “Dawn of Nemunas” party, Žemaitaitis again contested Kelmė–Šilalė and won the seat outright in the first round, receiving more than half of the votes cast (thus no runoff was needed).

In the October 2024 Seimas elections, as leader of the new “Dawn of Nemunas” party, Žemaitaitis again contested Kelmė–Šilalė and won the seat outright in the first round, receiving more than half of the votes cast (thus no runoff was needed).

Žemaitaitis received about 9.3% of the vote in the first round of the May 2024 Lithuanian presidential election, finishing fourth among the candidates.

On 22 January 2024, Žemaitaitis publicly declared that he would run as a candidate in the 2024 Lithuanian presidential election.

In the 2020 parliamentary election, running under the new Freedom and Justice party, Žemaitaitis won the Kelmė–Šilalė single-member constituency (district No. 41). Since Freedom and Justice failed to cross the 5% national threshold, his victory ensured he was essentially the only representative of that party in the 2020–2024 Seimas.

In the October 2016 Seimas elections, after electoral district changes, he ran in the new “Pietų Žemaitijos” (South Žemaitija) constituency. He won decisively, securing 38.0% of votes in the first round and then defeating conservative Stasys Šedbaras in the runoff with 66.3% of the vote.

Žemaitaitis first entered the Seimas by winning a by-election in the Šilalė–Šilutė single-member constituency on 29 November 2009 (he prevailed in the runoff to fill that vacant seat). He retained this seat in the 2012 parliamentary elections as a "Order and Justice" candidate.

Žemaitaitis first entered the Seimas by winning a by-election in the Šilalė–Šilutė single-member constituency on 29 November 2009 (he prevailed in the runoff to fill that vacant seat). He retained this seat in the 2012 parliamentary elections as an "Order and Justice" candidate.

He first entered the Seimas by winning a by-election in the Šilalė–Šilutė single-member constituency on 29 November 2009, running as an Order and Justice candidate.

By mid-2024, his declared family wealth had jumped to approximately €1.405 million (up from €940.5k the year before), reflecting an increase of nearly €465,000 in one year.

As of mid-2023, Žemaitaitis and his wife declared total assets worth about €940,500, which placed him among the five wealthiest members of the Seimas at that time.

According to his 2023 asset declaration, he owns roughly €490,000 worth of real estate in Lithuania (including an apartment valued ~€173k and a house ~€317k), and he reported about €278k in cash savings, ~€170k in stock investments (sharply up from ~€20k a year earlier), as well as ~€283k worth of art, jewelry, or other valuable personal property.

His liabilities (loans) diminished over that period – the family’s total borrowed sum dropped from about €166,500 to €92,000 in the latest declaration, indicating significant debt repayment within a year.

The nearly €0.5 million surge in Žemaitaitis’s declared wealth from 2022 to 2023 prompted scrutiny. He explained that most of the increase came from changes in his real estate holdings (such as completing a new house and acquiring additional property, which greatly boosted their valuation) and from a steep rise in the value of his stock portfolio during that year.

The inclusion of Žemaitaitis’s Nemuno Aušra party in a prospective governing coalition after the 2024 elections drew international criticism – for example, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin warned in November 2024 that such a coalition undermined shared democratic values due to Žemaitaitis’s record of antisemitic remarks.

On April 29, 2024, Žemaitaitis resigned his seat in the Seimas after the Constitutional Court ruled that his antisemitic remarks had grossly violated the Constitution and breached his oath as an MP.

In April 2024, Lithuania’s Central Electoral Commission (VRK) found that Žemaitaitis violated the principle of fair elections by using his Seimas member status to obtain free venues for meetings that were essentially part of his presidential campaign (presenting them as meetings with a parliamentarian, not a candidate).

Between May and June 2023, he made a series of Facebook posts that were widely condemned as antisemitic – including one on May 8, 2023 where he quoted a rhyme encouraging children to kill Jews – leading to public outrage and calls for his impeachment.

On May 19, 2023, the Freedom and Justice party suspended Remigijus Žemaitaitis’s membership in the party in response to his antisemitic statements on social media.

In one of his Facebook posts, Žemaitaitis referred to Israel as “another bunch of animals” and quoted a Lithuanian verse about killing Jews, drawing sharp condemnation from Lithuania’s Jewish community and international observers.

In a September 2018 interview with the Russian-language weekly “Ekspress nedelia”, Žemaitaitis said he was against “anti-Russian sanctions” on Russia and argued for more dialogue instead, sparking criticism at home.

In 2017, as an MP he formally asked EU leaders about the legal possibility of reinstating the death penalty in Lithuania, advocating harsher punishments amid rising crime and terrorism.

Žemaitaitis has stated that he supports legalizing civil unions (partnerships) for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples, but he is firmly against allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.

He and his wife Živilė have two children (both sons).

He is married to Živilė Žemaitaitienė (a lawyer by profession), who in the latest asset disclosure declared about €65,000 in personal assets to her name.

Žemaitaitis comes from a family of entrepreneurs in Šilutė: a 2017 parliamentary ethics inquiry revealed that his father (Rimantas Žemaitaitis), mother (Vidmanta Žemaitaitienė), and brother (Dževaldas Žemaitaitis) are shareholders in several companies (such as UAB “Dervira”, “Dervira ir partneriai”, “Statyk pats”, and “Pamario starta”) operating businesses like a bowling café and a building materials store. Remigijus Žemaitaitis himself has held shares in at least one of these family firms (e.g., UAB “Dervira ir partneriai”).