Samoan PM Apologizes for 2007 Nazi Gesture

On Oct. 5, 2026, Samoa Prime Minister La'auli Leuatea Schmidt posted an apology on the government's Facebook page a day after the Samoa Observer publicized a seven-second July 2007 family-reunion video. In it he says "Raise your right hand, Heil Hitler!" into a microphone while raising his arm, with others matching the gesture. He was deputy speaker then and took office after an August 2025 election in a nation of about 220,000. "Whatever the context or intention at that gathering twenty years ago, I recognise that those words and gesture were inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt and I apologise for using them," he said. He called the gathering private and not intended for the public, and rejected Nazism, antisemitism, racism and all forms of political extremism. The same prime minister wore a Jewish prayer shawl and entered to a shofar at his September 2025 swearing-in, has said "I stand for Israel, the land of God," and committed to opening an embassy in Jerusalem before year-end; three other Pacific islands have opened Jerusalem embassies since September 2023. The Observer has been barred from government press events since November and called the ban authoritarian. Schmidt confirmed an aide deleted an Observer reporter's photos and said the paper was flouting the ban; the Journalists Association of Samoa said it was deeply disturbed. What came immediately before and after the 2007 moment is unknown.