Ex-Okamura party MPs set up Unified Alternative for Patriots

Three MPs who quit Tomio Okamura’s Freedom and Direct Democracy party have set up a new grouping. Lubomír Volný, Marian Bojko and Ivana Nevludová are now members of Unified Alternative for Patriots, which was officially registered on Friday and plans to take part in May’s elections to the European Parliament.

Mr. Volný said the three had left Freedom and Direct Democracy as it had permitted racists and neo-Nazis to join it. He has rejected a call from the party to also resign from his seat in the Chamber of Deputies.

Lubomír Volný has in the past referred to Václav Havel as a traitor, criticised the Erasmus scheme for students and offered to “take outside” a dispute with another MP during a lower house session. Soon after he said he would challenge Mr. Okamura for the party chairmanships his Moravian Silesian branch of Freedom and Direct Democracy was dissolved.

Author: Ian Willoughby