PRAGUE – Outgoing Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has condemned the election of far-right leader Tomio Okamura as Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, warning that the move places a “xenophobic” person at the head of the country’s lower house.

Speaking on Wednesday – the day his government formally submitted its resignation – Fiala called Okamura’s appointment “a huge mistake,” accusing the SPD chief of making “radical, racist, xenophobic and chauvinist” statements.

“We now have at the head of the Chamber someone who absolutely should not be there,” Fiala said, calling the move a huge mistake. He accused Okamura of having “a series of unacceptable statements” and of expressing himself “in a radical, racist, xenophobic, chauvinist way”.

Okamura, who heads the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party, has long been a source of controversy.

He has questioned the historical existence of the Roma concentration camp by the Nazi, shared social media posts urging people to walk pigs in front of mosques to “protect against Islam,” and once claimed he would “rather jump out of a window” than be adopted by a same-sex couple.

Most recently, a campaign billboard showing a dark-skinned man holding a bloody knife under the slogan “shortages in healthcare will not be solved by imported surgeons” triggered criminal charges for suspected incitement to hatred.

Okamura was elected speaker with 107 out of 200 votes, reflecting the new parliamentary majority between the populist ANO party, Okamura’s SPD, and the right-wing Motorists movement. ANO leader Andrej Babiš aims to form a new government by mid-December.

Fiala said Okamura’s appointment stemmed from a political deal “to secure impunity” for both Okamura and Babiš. The incoming coalition parties shares a common interest in shielding themselves from corruption investigations.

Okamura’s own brother, Christian-democratic lawmaker Hayato Okamura, also warned against his election, saying that placing a long-time critic of EU and NATO membership in the speaker’s chair poses a serious security risk, not a game.

(cs)