EU rights court hears MEP Tomaszewski’s lawsuit over TV host’s statements
The 15min.lt news website was the first to report about the case on Tuesday, referring to an entry on the EU court’s official website.
Tomaszewski, leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania-Christian Families Alliance (LLRA-KŠS), claims that the Lithuanian state institutions tolerated hate speech against him as a politician (the chair of the LLRA-KŠS, a member of the European Parliament) and as a member of the Polish minority in Lithuania.
In October 2020, Lithuanian prosecutors launched a pre-trial investigation into a statement made on 14 October by a former Seimas speaker, an influential show business figure Arūnas Valinskas, who told an online TV that the LLRA-KŠS leader Tomaszewski was “an absolute Colorado potato beetle who receives funding for his party from the Lithuanian state budget but is an anti-state figure. Such people should be shot down, one per year. It should begin with him because what he does is a problem.”
The investigation was later terminated due to insufficient grounds to deem the statements a criminal offence.
The Kremlin supporters in Lithuania sometimes colloquially are called the Colorado beetles for using the ribbon of Saint George/the Guards ribbon, a Russian military symbol, which reminds of the colours of the prolific pest of potato crops.
Tomaszewski also argues that hate speech was used against him to influence the will of the voters in the 2020 parliamentary elections (second round).