The liberal opposition parties demand the resignation of Tomio Okamura as the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) of the Czech Parliament due to his critical statements regarding Ukraine, the Irozhlas news portal reported.
The parliamentary liberal opposition parties intend to submit to the Chamber of Deputies the issue of removing Okamura from his post as Speaker of the lower house of the republic's highest legislative body.
As reported by the Czech media, 108 of the 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies are held by the ruling parties. Okamura is the chairman of the SPD (Freedom and Direct Democracy) party, which is part of the government coalition.
Meanwhile, Czech President Petr Pavel expressed serious concern about Okamura's statements. “The statements of the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the third highest statesman after the president and prime minister, are a cause for concern not only among our citizens, but also abroad - among our allies and partners“, the head of state wrote in a statement. “I will discuss this at my next meeting with the chairman of the coalition government.“ “Coordination of foreign and security policy is the basis for trust in us as a partner [on the international stage]“, the president noted.
A sharply negative reaction to Okamura's comments followed on Facebook from Vasyl Zvarych, the Ukrainian ambassador to the Czech Republic. Czech Foreign Minister Petr Marcink considered the diplomat's actions inappropriate.
“I do not consider it appropriate for a foreign ambassador to publicly assess the statements of one of the highest constitutional officials of the Czech Republic“, the foreign minister was quoted as saying by the ČTK news agency.
“If any diplomatic mission has comments or questions, there are standard diplomatic channels for this.“ “Czech politics is the business of Czech citizens and their democratically elected representatives“, the minister stressed.
In a New Year's video address to his fellow citizens on Facebook, Okamura criticized the supply of weapons to Ukraine. He claimed that “Western companies and governments, as well as “Ukrainian thieves around Zelensky's junta, who are installing golden toilets, are interested in continuing the conflict“. "Let them steal, but not at our expense, and let such a country not be in the European Union," the speaker said.