Anti-Ukrainian sentiments not shared by all Czechs, author of letter supporting Ukraine says

Ukrinform spoke with the author of the open letter, Antonín Kolář, a teacher and municipal head from the Plzeň Region.

Listening to the New Year’s address by Speaker of the Czech Chamber of Deputies Tomio Okamura, in which he insulted Ukrainians, Kolář said he primarily felt sadness and shame over the way Ukraine and its citizens were portrayed.

“In the context of the ongoing war, I heard contempt rather than criticism in those words. That is the moment when politics becomes something that touches on basic human dignity. At that point, I realized that staying silent would mean becoming a witness to the normalization of language that hurts,” Kolář said.

As a result, the decision to write a letter to Ukraine’s ambassador to the Czech Republic Vasyl Zvarych came very quickly – almost immediately after the speech. Kolář realized that he wanted not only to respond to heated Czech political debates, but also to send a clear signal outward, specifically to Ukraine. That is why he addressed the Ukrainian ambassador directly, believing it was right to reach out to the official representative of the country affected by those statements and to express solidarity with those facing war and loss.

Kolář was pleasantly surprised by how many people signed the letter – not only by the number itself, but also by how the support spread: without a campaign, organizations, or well-known names.

At the same time, the interviewee noted that about half an hour after the petition was posted on Facebook, the social network blocked the ability to leave comments and messages under the post. Therefore, the fact that others began quickly sharing the letter was, according to Kolář, especially valuable.

“This confirmed that there is a strong, though often silent,  need in society to say: this is not us, this is not how we want to speak. It also showed that people still believe that even a calm, decent voice matters. I wish this were also true in public political debates,” Kolář said.

He does not believe that a single petition will change policy or the attitudes of those who “feed on the destruction of society.” However, it can have another, no less important effect: “to show Ukraine that it is not alone, and that disrespectful statements by individual figures do not represent the whole of Czech society; it can also give courage to people who feel the same way but hesitate to speak out, and help preserve the boundary of what is still acceptable,” Kolář said.

He added that the Freedom and Direct Democracy party (Okamura’s party) often boasts about freedom of speech, but “freedom of speech is not the freedom to lie, freedom of speech is not the freedom to humiliate, and freedom of speech is not the freedom to strip others of their human dignity.”

“In times of war and crisis, simply being decent is not enough. Upholding the line between good and evil, decency and stupidity, as well as between freedom and unfreedom, or democracy and totalitarianism, is critically important. I don’t think I need to say anything to Ukrainians at all – they are fighting for these values themselves… and dying for them,” Kolář emphasized.

As reported by Ukrinform, the New Year’s address by the Speaker of the lower house of the Czech parliament, Tomio Okamura, in which he spoke disparagingly about Ukrainians, sparked outrage in Ukraine, among the Ukrainian community, and within the Czech Republic itself. Opposition party factions are now planning to raise the issue of Okamura’s dismissal from his post.

Photo: Antonín Kolář archive