SPD leader Okamura under fire for remarks about police chief

Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) leader Tomio Okamura has come under fire for threatening to remove the police president from office because he had allegedly stood by and allowed Okamura to be charged with inciting hatred through the distribution of posters with racist or xenophobic undertones.

Okamura said on Tuesday that if his party were to gain control of the Interior Ministry in a future government, he would move to replace the current police president, Martin Vondrášek.

Opposition leader Andrej Babiš described Tomio Okamura’s call to replace the national police president as “highly inappropriate”.  Members of the outgoing coalition have slammed Okamura for “brutal pressure on law enforcement and attempts to intimidate the police”.

The outgoing interior Minister Vít Rakušan said on X that while it is not surprising that Okamura should consider such a step it is sad that he dares to say it out aloud.

The court has requested the Czech Chamber of Deputies to lift Tomio Okamura’s parliamentary immunity so that he may face criminal prosecution.