Laauli Leuatea Schmidt

Introduction

Laaulialemalietoa Laʻauli Leuatea Polataivao Fosi Schmidt is the prime minister of Samoa, in office since 2025, and the founder and chairman of the Faʻatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party. On 4 October 2026, the Samoa Observer published a seven-second video from 2007 showing Schmidt performing a Nazi salute and leading a group of about thirteen people in shouting “Heil Hitler” at a family gathering. Schmidt issued a public apology the following day, saying the words and gesture were “inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt”, but gave no indication he would resign.

Background Information

Schmidt is the member of parliament for Gagaʻifomauga No. 3 and a former speaker and deputy speaker of the Samoan parliament. He was deputy speaker in 2007, when the video was recorded, having won his seat the year before. He later served as minister of agriculture and fisheries in the government of prime minister Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa. In January 2025 he was charged with ten criminal offences — including conspiring to pervert the course of justice, fabricating evidence, harassment and making false, defamatory statements, in a case stemming from his private investigation into a fatal 2021 hit-and-run — and was sacked from cabinet after refusing to step aside. The crisis split the ruling FAST party; Schmidt ran against Fiame and became prime minister later in 2025 after snap elections were called when her minority government failed to pass the budget. In March 2026 the District Court in Apia acquitted him of all charges; two co-defendants were convicted on other counts.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted conduct, past acquittal. The footage described here is not in dispute: Schmidt did not deny the video and apologised publicly the day after it was published. His 2025 criminal charges, recounted above, ended in acquittal on every count in March 2026 — nothing in this page is a criminal conviction.

According to the Samoa Observer, which first published the clip on Sunday 4 October 2026, the seven-second video shows Schmidt holding a microphone, encouraging roughly thirteen people to raise their right hands, and leading them in saying “Raise your right hand, Heil Hitler!” after a “Hip hip!"—“Hooray!” call-and-response; the camera then pans across the gathering showing others repeating the phrase with right arms raised. Radio New Zealand said its reporter in Samoa had independently verified the clip. Schmidt said the video was recorded at a private family gathering in Savaiʻi in 2007 and was “not intended for the public”; a family member told the Observer he was master of ceremonies at the reunion. The newspaper reported it was not known what happened immediately before or after the filmed moment, and his statement did not explain it.

In a statement published on the government’s Facebook page on Monday 5 October, Schmidt said: “I recognise that those words and gesture were inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt and I apologise for using them,” adding that they “do not reflect my personal beliefs, nor the values of the Government or people of Samoa.” He said he rejected “Nazism, antisemitism, racism and all forms of political extremism.” Schmidt, who has German and Samoan heritage — Germany ruled Western Samoa from 1900 until the First World War — has also positioned himself as a strong supporter of Israel: he wore a Jewish prayer shawl at his swearing-in in September 2025, a shofar was blown at the ceremony, and he told reporters afterwards that “Samoa will not withdraw from supporting Israel as the country of God’s people.”

The video’s release landed in the middle of an escalating fight between Schmidt’s government and the Samoa Observer, the country’s largest newspaper. The government had barred the paper from the prime minister’s press conferences and official events in November 2025, accusing it of misleading coverage, and reaffirmed the ban two days before publishing the video. On the Friday before the clip emerged, Schmidt confirmed that an aide had deleted photographs of him from an Observer reporter’s camera outside government buildings, defending the move as enforcement of the ban. The Observer has called the ban “authoritarian”.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Richard Evans, a historian of Nazi Germany, told the Samoa Observer: “That any responsible politician should say ‘Heil Hitler’ and give a Nazi salute in the 21st century is shocking and disturbing.” The Journalists Association of Samoa said it was “deeply disturbed” by the deletion of the reporter’s photographs. The apology drew international coverage, including from the New York Post, the Associated Press and broadcasters across the Pacific, but the government’s simultaneous ban on the newspaper that broke the story shaped much of the reaction. The editor of the Observer said the ban would not stop the paper doing its job.

Current Status

Schmidt remains prime minister. His office has issued the apology but announced no further consequences, and none of the fetched reporting records a resignation, censure or police interest in the 2007 footage, which shows conduct that is not a criminal matter in itself. The Media Council’s decision on the government’s complaint against the Samoa Observer is still pending, and the ban on the paper covering the prime minister remains in place.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The video revived scrutiny of Schmidt’s judgment at the height of his power: he had survived a ten-count criminal prosecution, won the premiership, and then apologized for footage of himself leading a Nazi salute — while punishing the newspaper that published it. The affair ties his name to the “Heil Hitler” clip permanently in the public record, and the press-freedom dispute surrounding its release — the ban, the complaint to the Media Council, the deleted photographs — has become part of how his government is judged internationally. His apology explicitly framed the footage as inconsistent with his record of support for Israel and the Jewish community.

Sources

ABC News (Australia), “Samoa’s prime minister apologises over Nazi salute ‘heil Hitler’ video from 2007,” 5 October 2026 — source
The Independent, “Samoan prime minister apologises for ‘Heil Hitler’ video,” 5 October 2026 — source
Radio New Zealand, “Samoa prime minister acquitted in high-profile conspiracy case,” 27 March 2026 — source
Samoa News Hub, “Laʻauli Schmidt sacked following criminal charges,” 10 January 2025 — source
Wikipedia, “Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt” (summary), retrieved 5 October 2026 — source
New York Post, “Samoa PM apologizes for saying ‘Heil Hitler’, performing Nazi salute in unearthed video from 2007,” 5 October 2026 (post) — source