Lower house chief heads delegation to Slovakia on first foreign trip

Lower House speaker and SPD leader, Tomio Okamura, travels to Bratislava on Tuesday for his first official foreign visit in the role. His nine-member delegation includes only MPs from the emerging coalition (ANO, SPD, Motorists ); opposition lawmakers were not invited. Okamura will meet Slovak National Council Speaker Richard Raši (Hlas-SD), and also President Peter Pellegrini and Prime Minister Robert Fico. He says the goal is to strengthen “above-standard” inter-parliamentary relations and restart regular meetings, which the Czech side previously halted partly in response to the Slovak government’s pro-Russian positions.