Czech Pirates, TOP 09 and Christian Democrats support stripping Okamura of immunity, opposition ANO has yet to decide
Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Labor and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurečka, who is also a lawmaker in the lower house for the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) will be voting in favor of stripping the head of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) party, Tomio Okamura, of his parliamentary immunity over last year's election campaign. In his view, the SPD advertisements crossed the line, were inappropriate and racist, and need to be prosecuted.
Jurečka told the Czech media that he presumes other politicians from the governing coalition will proceed as he will. While such politicians and the Pirates have said they are in favor of stripping Okamura of his parliamentary immunity, members of the opposition Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) movement are still considering their stance.
The chair of the ANO club in the lower house, Alena Schillerová, told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) that she personally is not inclined to strip Okamura of his immunity. She said she disliked the campaign, which seemed exaggerated to her; police now suspect Okamura of committing felony incitement to hatred through the advertisements.
However, Schillerová said she did not believe the politician should be prosecuted for the campaign. She compared the scandal to the campaign ads for the same election where the governing coalition used photoshopped images of ANO politicians with Russian flags on their faces.
The first vice-president in the lower house for the TOP 09 party, Vlastimil Válek, who is also the Czech Health Minister, said he will support stripping the chair of the SPD of his immunity in the Chamber of Deputies. He made his announcement on X, adding that he is personally in favor of Okamura being released for prosecution.
The Pirates will vote the same way, according to Olga Richterová, vice-chair of the party and vice-president in the lower house, when asked for comment about the Prague Police request. As for Schillerová of ANO, she wrote that the matter will have to be discussed by the ANO club.
“They [i.e., ANO’s political rivals] put [ANO chair] Andrej Babiš on a billboard next to Putin, during the war on Ukraine they painted Russian flags on the faces of ANO politicians, to me personally that crosses the line just as much,” she said when describing why the SPD politician should not be prosecuted for waging such a campaign. She was referring to last year’s campaign ahead of the elections to the EP, regional assemblies and the Senate, when the governing SPOLU (Together) coalition modified an ANO campaign ad and posted it to the web with a slogan replacing the word “Czechia” with “Russia” and replacing the Czech flags on the faces of Babiš and lead ANO candidate Klára Dostálová with Russian ones.
At the time, Schillerová spoke of the modification of the ANO ad as a “hybrid attack”. Czech President Petr Pavel criticized the campaign as well.
Police suspect the chair of the SPD of committing felony incitement to hatred of a group of persons and/or incitement to limit the rights and freedoms of its members in relation to its billboard campaign last year. The billboards show a dark-skinned man wielding a bloody knife and wearing a bloody shirt with the message “Deficiencies in health care can’t be solved by importing ‘surgeons’. ‘Stop the EU Migration Pact!’”
Another poster featured a drawing of two Romani boys smoking cigarettes, over which the ROMEA organization and several Romani figures filed a report of a crime. The image had obviously been generated by artificial intelligence.
The message on the ad read: “They say we should go to school, but our folks couldn’t care less…” and “Welfare just for families whose children attend school!” At the time, Okamura said the depiction was meant to be an “allegory”.
According to Deputy PM Jurečka, it is appropriate that the case was investigated. “I will certainly vote in favor of stripping him of immunity… From my perspective, that campaign completely crossed the line. I consider it inappropriate, racist. Something of the sort really does not belong in campaigns and political competition. We are in a democratic, advanced country where there are meant to be some sort of lawfully elementary rights of humanity, of humanism. What Tomio Okamura and the SPD did, including their defense of it, totally crossed the line,” he told journalists.
Jurečka said he does not presume other politicians will proceed otherwise. He based that on their previous statements during the campaign.
Pirate vice-chair Richterová also said she believed the SPD campaign crossed the line. Health Minister Válek wrote that racism is one of the most repugnant things one person can do to another.
The Health Minister said he believes that to go so far as to use racism during a political campaign, one that was totally deceptive on top of everything else, just adds insult to injury. “Hate is not a program, and it is not censorship to refute lies. My expectation is that [Okamura] will not hide behind his parliamentary immunity like a coward and I support releasing him for prosecution. I will absolutely, certainly support stripping him of immunity,” he said.
Richterová (Pirates) wrote that the Chamber of Deputies is not meant to be a judge deciding whether somebody perpetrated a crime or not. Exactly for that reason a court should decide the matter fairly.
A report of a crime was also filed over the SPD’s campaign last year by Prague politician Jiří Pospíšil (TOP 09). “It always makes sense to fight such people and their practices! That is the only way hatred based on race or ethnicity does not become the norm,” he posted to X.
Okamura said on 7 January that he considers the police request to be the result of the governing SPOLU coalition (composed of the Civic Democratic Party – ODS, the KDU-ČSL and TOP 09) criminalizing the opposition for its opinions.
Committee in the lower house to start reviewing handing Okamura over for prosecution at the start of February
The Committee on Immunity and Mandates in the lower house will start reviewing the police’s request to hand over Okamura for prosecution in early February. The plenary could vote on the issue in March.
Helena Válková (ANO), who chairs the committee, informed ČTK of the timeline today. According to her, committee members will start assessing the request at their 4 February session.
“In the interim we can request the police file, if we decide to, or visit the relevant police station where they have the file to read it,” said Válková. The committee will first decide on its approach.
The committee could, for instance, invite Okamura to give a statement on the matter, which is his right. Válková said the committee could issue a recommendation to the plenary as to whether to grant the police request at the end of February or start of March.
The committee chair estimates that the decision could be made by a plenary session of the lower house in March as well.
