Continuing our walk the talk, talk the walk series about hypocrites within the European Parliament, Lithuania’s Petras Gražulis fits into the picture perfectly.
Mr. Handsome (the name gražulis literally means handsome) started his career as the poster child of anti-Communist freedom fighter-slash-dissident, fighting for the rights of Catholics within the then-Lithuanian SSR. Probably not surprisingly, as three of his brothers are Catholic priests. He even spent some time in jail for refusing to serve in military training in the Soviet Army.
No wonder that he became the (re)founding member of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party, then served first in the municipal council in the city of Kaunas, then as a member of the Seimas (the parliament of Lithuania).
Politics played a great role in his life, thus, he had no time for his family. His daughter, Marija Salavicieni (a jewellery-designer) told media that her father was absent from her life as a child, “he was everywhere, just not at home”. And there was nothing good in it if he was, as Gražulis was cold, strict and demanding (e.g. arguing with the family because the garage was not tidied up).
As his children reached adulthood, he might have tried to compensate for the childhood negligence: for example, by introducing an emergency amendment to the traffic code in 2015, to save his daughter from a EUR 170 penalty for a minor violation.
Things started to take change around 2004.
Though in 2001-2004, he was chairman of the board of the Christian Democrats, after a while, Gražulis gradually withdraw himself from the party, focusing on his independent career instead – so successfully that in 2006, he was expelled from the party for neglecting his duties.
In two years, he found himself as the member and vice-chairman of the Order and Justice party. Just to get expelled a decade later following the collapse of his marriage, an infidelity scandal and some arguments with party chairman Remigijus Žemaitaitis.
This gave a new impetus to his career, as he decided to establish his own political party (For Lithuania, Men!) instead. The new party quickly got unified with two more small groups, thus the People of Justice Union was born in 2021.
Some politicians’ CVs are full of great achievements, displaying successful legislative initiatives and moral integrity. Mr. Handsome’s own colourful biography looks more like a patchwork of controversies.
The number of traffic accidents caused by him would suggest that he was a closeted rally driver: he was involved in several car crashes, was caught speeding, and once even hit a woman pushing a pram. His record year was 2022, when he was caught 13 times for various violations, thus he ended up with his driver’s licence being suspended for one year.
Despite his penchant for appealing to God’s help in different situations, his past as a fighter for Lithuania’s Catholics and his known pro-life stance, in 2018 it turned out that he has an out-of-wedlock child with his much younger lover. To make things worse, he tried to force the mother to have an abortion.
Somewhat similar to other MEP’s, he gained notoriety for political stunts, having become a frequent target of tabloids. But unlike Romania’s Şoşoacă, he chose the LGBTQI minority as a punching bag.
Pride Parades are his favourite targets. He climbed over the fence both in 2010 and 2013. During the latter incident, he had to be carried away by police officers, during which he kept shouting the name of his future party, For Lithuania, men!. The fun-loving people of the internet quickly turned the moment into memes, viral videos and music hits.
Due to his immunity, he couldn’t be prosecuted despite the proof that he forced himself through the cordon, shouted, then resisted and ignored the police’s instructions. Thus charges were dropped in 2014.
His attacks against the LGBTQI community continued.
In 2012, he chose a conference as a target. He interrupted the session of the event organized by the Lithuanian Gay League on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia. Gražulis demanded that all foreign ambassadors who attended the conference got expelled from the country, at the same time equating homosexuality with necrophilia, pedophilia and zoophilia.
Ironically, he might not only be a closeted rally driver, but also a closeted gay.
At least, during COVID social distancing measures in 2020, the Cultural Committee of the Seimas held a long-distance meeting. It happened during that event that “Andrius Tapinas was stalking him and photoshopped himself into his video” (Tapinas is an influential Lithuanian publicist and TV presenter). At least it was Gražulis’s explanation to a half-naked man appearing on his screen. He accused Tapinas of “haunting him for half a year” and “standing under the windows” when he visits his daughter.
In 2021, a video of him forced RDM SA, the main company of the KangooJumps shoes to circulate an apologetic message and distance itself from Gražulis, who danced in their shoes to an uncensored, homophobic song.
On May 26, 2022 Gražulis met representatives of the LGBTQI community, but instead of offering a palm branch, he called them “degenerates spreading sexually transmitted disease” and suggested them to get treatment.
Corruption is also not missing from his repertoire.
The greatest scandal involving his name is the “Judex” case.
Gražulis has repeatedly visited the company (producing frozen food), participated in its various meetings, advised the employees of the company and even borrowed money from them. According to a witness’ testimony, the visits were paid for by the company, the deputy could use a company car and its fuel cards. Employees had to make sure that Gražulis’s name was not indicated on any travel documents.
According to the prosecution, during the course of 2015-17, the deputy might have sought and received benefits from the company, abusing his position and “illegally interfering in the activities of other civil servants in Lithuania and Russia”. Gražulis was also accused of having offered bribes to Russian officials, asking them to act illegally in the interests of Judex. In one instead he tried to make civil servants conceal the fact that Judex’s products contained bacteria, thus prevent the company from being banned from exporting its products.
“By such actions the member of the Seimas systematically, for a long time, used his status and influence as a representative of the highest power, diminished the prestige of his duties, the authority of the Seimas and members ot he Seimas..”, and so on. “As a result, the state incurred significant non-property damage”.
There were some suggestions that Gražulis was in fact the owner of the company.
Gražulis was found guilty in 2022, appealed against the verdict, but lost again in 2023, and was fined for EUR 15,000.
His parliamentary career took an abrupt end in 2023.
A year before, Gražulis was caught casting a vote instead of another member of parliament. A serious violation of the Lithuanian Constitution. In his defence, Gražulis claimed that he didn’t remember voting instead of a Socialist deputy, “when you vote a hundred of times during the day, you cannot remember”.
In due course, fellow MP’s initiated an impeachment procedure, then the Seimas revoke Gražulis’s mandate for breaking his oath of office on December 18, 2023.
The step also means that he can’t run for parliament or the presidency for a decade.
As one of his last stunts on the Lithuanian political scene, during a session of the Seimas, he tried to give a Soviet tank driver’s uniform to the speaker of the house, Viktorija Cmilyte Nielsen, with the aim of reminding her that her grandfather served in the Soviet army. Gražulis was fined in 2024 for EUR 300, for “demonstration of Soviet symbols”.
Being barred from Lithuanian politics for ten years, Gražulis turned his attention to the European Parliament. Luckily for him, the ban doesn’t prevent him from representing Lithuania abroad.
To ensure his prompt election, he promised to give away half of his MEP salary – a step that might had been appreciated by voters, but not so much by Lithuania’s election watchdog. The Central Electoral Commission (VRK) decided that Gražulis actually bribed voters. The MEP announced that he would appeal against the decision.
Either way, Gražulis was elected to the EP in 2024 as the single MEP of his party, by 5.34 percent of the votes. Besides a steady income, the step also guarantees immunity in is trials.
After being first snubbed by the European Conservatives and Reformists group for failing to explain why he got expelled from the Seimas, then by the Patriots for Europe, he joined the Sovereigntists instead.
It is probably good to know that he takes his European MEP duties more seriously than in his homeland, at least when he doesn’t answer a phone call right in the middle of a parliamentary session.
Because in cases like that, he might accidentally vote against an EUR 35 billion loan to Ukraine, to be covered by profits from Russia’s frozen assets.
He later claimed his “no” to be a “human error”, because “there were many amendments in the resolution”, then his phone rang and he “didn’t hear what was being voted on at that time”. Thus, he pressed “no” against what he thought was a “routine amendment”, just in case.
Other Lithuanian MEPs are convinced that the “failure” was merely an excuse and Gražulis just “pressed the button” that was indicated on his fraction’s voting sheet, and he “simply does not understand what he is voting for”.
All in all, Gražulis is another perfect example of politicians “banished” to Brussels instead of causing more trouble at home.
The question is who will call him out for causing “significant non-property damage” for the reputation of the European Parliament.