Czech far-right leader becomes Parliament speaker

PRAGUE (AFP) — Czech lawmakers elected Tomio Okamura the country’s first-ever far-right Parliament speaker on Wednesday, a month after a general election allowed his party to join an emerging government coalition.

The ANO movement of billionaire ex-premier Andrej Babis, Okamura’s SPD and the rightwing Motorists have 108 seats in the 200-member Parliament after the October vote.

Okamura’s far-right party is set for its first-ever government stint under Babis as prime minister, with the cabinet expected to be named in December.

The post of Parliament speaker is the third highest after the president and prime minister in the Czech Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.9 million people.

The 53-year-old, Tokyo-born Okamura, who got 107 votes from the 197 lawmakers present, said he would be “an impartial speaker for all, whether they voted for me or not.”

“We will be working together for the benefit of our country and our citizens. I think we should find common ground,” he added.

But he failed to impress rivals including his older brother Hayato, a lawmaker for the centrist Christian Democrats, who called the election “a serious security threat.”

Okamura is facing trial for inciting hatred over 2024 European election posters depicting a black man with a blood-stained knife, saying that “imported surgeons will not resolve our health sector’s shortcomings.”

Okamura has also called Ukrainians “Nazis” and urged thorough checks on Ukrainian war refugees Prague has accepted since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The SPD has advocated a referendum on a Czech exit from the EU, something it has given up on after teaming up with the more pro-European Babis.

“I think it is a serious threat to elect as Parliament speaker a man who for many years has been the most prominent politician in our society questioning our EU and NATO membership,” said Hayato Okamura.

“It’s a security threat and no child’s play,” he added.

Outgoing Interior Minister Vit Rakusan, head of the centrist STAN party, described the SPD as “a party that a court has allowed to label as a commercial Nazi movement,” in a post on X.

“Tomio Okamura’s nomination for the post of Parliament speaker is a national and international disgrace,” he added.

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By Agence France-Presse