Lower house speaker Okamura against further arms supplies to "sustain senseless war"

The speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and SPD party leader, Tomio Okamura, spoke out against providing further weapons to Ukraine in his New Year address posted on social media.

Okamura argued that arms should not be sent to “sustain a senseless war” saying that it was unacceptable to use money that belongs to Czech pensioners, people with disabilities or families with children to buy weapons and send them abroad simply because, in his words, pro-war propaganda demanded it. According to him, it is absurd to provide above-standard assistance to others when the country is, as he put it, unable to adequately care for its own people.

In the roughly ten-minute speech, Okamura wished everyone health and peace. He said he believed the Czech Republic should “jump off the Brussels train”, which he claimed is heading towards a third world war despite warnings from the US government.