Latvian Justice Minister Gaidis Berzins has resigned in protest of plans to offer restitution for Jewish property seized after the Holocaust.

Berzins, chair of the rightist All For Latvia-For Fatherland and Freedom Party, announced his resignation on Wednesday, the country’s news agency Leta reported.

In 2006, the Latvian parliament blocked a bill proposing $55 million in restitution for property that once belonged to institutions of Latvia’s Jewish community.

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Berzins’ party believes that offering restitution would place the interests of one minority group over others.

Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis’ of the center-right Unity Party has “ignored” the justice minister’s opposition to restitution, Leta quoted the minister’s press secretary as saying. Earlier this week, President Andris Berzins in a television interview for the LTV network said he supported restitution. His post is largely ceremonial.

Ilja Lenskis, director of the Jews in Latvia Museum, said restitution was a “painful and harsh issue” in the public discourse in Latvia. The Jewish community broached the subject again in 2011 and this year, he said.

Latvia had a Jewish population of some 95,000 before the Holocaust. Nazi troops and local volunteers decimated the community.

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