The Speaker of the Czech Republic’s lower house of parliament, Tomio Okamura, is confident in the correctness of his New Year’s speech, in which he insulted Ukraine, and promises to continue efforts within the ruling coalition to ensure that the republic does not provide aid to Ukraine.
Okamura made these statements in an interview with ČT24.
According to him, his party, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), supports stopping any delivery of money or weapons to Ukraine.
“This is SPD’s position, and we have not abandoned it… We oppose sending weapons and money to Ukraine, and we will continue to advance this position,” Okamura emphasized.
He said, in particular, that the party advocates for ending the ammunition initiative and will continue defending this stance. He described Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s announcement that the initiative would continue as a “coalition compromise.” In reality, Okamura noted, the Czech Republic will not spend money on it, though it will continue coordination.
“I can note that … very few people are involved in the coordination. It’s practically negligible participation; it’s not even really Czech coordination anymore, because the money comes from the West, and today it’s a commercial matter for Western countries,” Okamura remarked.
He added that the goal is peace in Ukraine, which is an important statement in the government’s program.
“Actually, it’s the only sentence there that concerns Ukraine, and I fully agree with it: we will support diplomatic steps leading to the end of the war in Ukraine and the reduction of war risks in Europe,” the parliament speaker emphasized.
He accused the previous government, as well as the European Commission, of failing to take the initiative in peace negotiations regarding Ukraine and allowing U.S. President Donald Trump to take over the initiative, instead of Europe being active in the peace process itself.
Okamura refused to call Ukraine an allied state, as Foreign Minister and leader of the “Motorists” party Petr Macek did on the same TV channel the day before. He added that he sees no reason to treat Ukraine differently from other countries, again referring to the government program, in which, according to him, this matter is not mentioned.
In the interview, Okamura defended his New Year’s speech, noting that he had never received so many positive responses and has no intention of retracting his offensive words.
