Samoa PM apologises after Nazi salute video emerges

Samoa’s Prime Minister La’auli Leuatea Schmidt apologized after a previously unseen 2007 video surfaced showing him leading a Nazi salute and saying “Heil Hitler” at a family gathering on Savai‘i island. The footage, recorded when Schmidt was an MP and deputy speaker, shows him leading a “hip hip” exchange before telling attendees to raise their right hands and say “Heil Hitler,” with about a dozen people following. Schmidt stated that the gestures and words were inappropriate regardless of intent, condemned Nazism, antisemitism, and racism, and clarified that they did not reflect his beliefs or Samoa’s values.