Okamura trying to save face with voters on ammunition initiative, expert says

The party of the Speaker of the lower house of the Czech parliament, Tomio Okamura, is seeking to retain its place in the ruling coalition and therefore will continue to publicly oppose the ammunition initiative, while in practice not blocking it.

This opinion was expressed in a comment to Ukrinform by Jakub Janda, director of the European Values Center for Security Policy (EVC), a Czech think tank.

“The far-right party (SPD) is openly resisting it (ammunition initiative – ed.), but they really want to be part of the government coalition, therefore its leader Tomio Okamura started to reframe the issue publicly, claiming this will not be a Czech initiative anymore, given no Czech funding. He tries to save face to his voters,” the expert noted.

Janda recalled that Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš had confirmed that the ammunition initiative for Ukraine would definitely continue. At the same time, the expert assumes that there will be some “procedural and communication changes,” but the core of the initiative will remain unchanged, “as international partners who fund it consider it a viable tool for defense of Ukraine”.

As reported, the new Czech government has taken a very critical stance toward the ammunition initiative, which Ukraine and European partners consider successful and one that has strengthened the Czech Republic’s weight on the international stage. The SPD party led by Tomio Okamura is categorically opposed to it, and ANO party leader Andrej Babiš has also spoken against it. In recent days, Babiš has been trying to find consensus within the three-party coalition so that the Czech Republic continues its coordinating role in the initiative without spending its own funds. The issue remains on the agenda and is expected to be discussed, among other things, at a meeting between Babiš and Okamura’s party on Tuesday.

Photo: Michal Turek, Seznam Zprávy