Czech PM rejects suggestion that Govt has influenced police request to strip lawmaker of immunity over racist election campaign
The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and apparently other parties in the governing coalition in the Czech Republic are waiting to announce their positions on the request to strip the chair of the opposition "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) party, Tomio Okamura, of his parliamentary immunity until the Chamber of Deputies' Committee on Immunity and Mandates reports its findings. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, chair of the ODS, informed journalists of that decision after the cabinet session yesterday.
Fiala said it was total nonsense for the opposition to speculate that Government interests lie behind the Prague Police’s request. Police suspect Okamura of inciting hatred of a group and inciting the limitation of the rights and freedoms of its members through the SPD’s billboard campaign last year.
The request to strip the opposition politician of his immunity was delivered to the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday. “We have nothing to do with this, we are unable to influence it, the police and the prosecutor do not act on the basis of Government instructions, that would never even occur to us,” Fiala said.
The PM said that neither the governing coalition nor the ODS have discussed their position on stripping Okamura of immunity yet. He said he wants to wait until the committee in the lower house meets and issues its findings.
The committee will start reviewing the request at the start of February. The lower house should vote on the issue in a plenary session in March.
Committee members will start assessing the request at their meeting on 4 February and can request the file in the interim or visit the relevant police station to read it. The committee will first decide on how to proceed with its investigation.
Okamura could be invited to a future session of the committee, for instance, to give a statement on the matter, which is his right. Czech Deputy Prime Minister, Labor and Social Affairs Minister and lawmaker for the Christian Democrats, Marian Jurečka, previously said he will be voting to strip Okamura of immunity in the Chamber of Deputies.
The Deputy PM said he believes the SPD campaign crossed the line, was inappropriate and racist, and needs to be investigated. The first vice-chair of the TOP 09 party, Czech Health Minister and lawmaker Vlastimil Válek, said he also expects to support stripping Okamura of his immunity during the vote in the Chamber of Deputies.
The Health Minister made the announcement on X, adding that he personally will be in favor of stripping Okamura of immunity. Olga Richterová, vice-chair of the Pirates and vice-president of the lower house, previously commented on social media that the Pirates will vote the same way.
While some governing coalition politicians 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 him of immunity.
Police suspect the SPD chair of committing felony incitement to hate a group and/or felony incitement to limit the rights and freedoms of its members in relation to last year’s billboard campaign during elections to the EP, regional assemblies and the Senate. On that billboard, a photograph of a dark-skinned man wielding a bloody knife and wearing a bloody shirt was featured next to these words: “Deficiencies in health care can’t be solved by importing ‘surgeons’. ‘Stop the EU Migration Pact!’”
On yet another poster in the campaign there is a drawing of two Romani boys smoking a cigarette; the ROMEA organization together with several Romani figures filed a report of a crime over that ad. Artificial intelligence obviously created the image.
The text of 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!” Okamura previously called the depiction of the Romani boys an “allegory”.
