“How do you want to return a million people?” Okamura scolded Fiala. Then the extraordinary meeting began

On Thursday, the leader of the SPD opposition movement, Tomio Okamura, used the right of priority speech in the Chamber of Deputies to criticize the EU migration pact and the government, which he accused of treason in connection with it. Okamura spoke before the vote on the proposal for an extraordinary meeting, at which the coalition wants to discuss in the second reading the questionable enactment of the option of postal voting for Czech citizens living abroad. In the opening round of the election amendment debate in January, Okamura’s filibustering speech lasted almost 11 hours without a break. Okamura’s current appearance also contributed to the fact that it took the deputies until the early evening hours to approve the program of the meeting. They discussed the program for 6.5 hours.

“The migration pact is a disaster for the Czech Republic and another betrayal of the Fial government to our citizens,” said Okamura. He dwelled on the fact that the Czech Republic was not against the EU’s approval of the migration rules, but held back on confirming the final wording. “It’s absolutely appalling what you’ve gotten us into,” said the SPD leader. According to him, the return policy is a fiction. “How do you want to return a million migrants a year who come here?” he asked.

The agreement on the final form of the package regarding migration and asylum was confirmed by the representatives of the member countries on Wednesday. In response, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) said that he considers it necessary to go beyond the scope of the migration pact and discourage illegal migrants from coming to Europe at all. According to the prime minister, the Czech Republic belongs to the group of countries that want to deal with illegal migration forcefully.

Today, Okamura called Fiala a “notorious liar and political fraud.” According to the leader of the SPD, the June elections to the European Parliament can change EU policy. In this context, Okamura announced that on the afternoon of May 23, the SPD is organizing a meeting of representatives of the patriotic parties of the Union states at Wenceslas Square.

The SPD leader also addressed Russian military aggression against Ukraine. According to him, the conflict should end by stopping the supply of weapons to Ukraine.

The first three hours or so of today’s parliamentary session were filled with speeches by representatives of the opposition ANO, the chairman of the movement, Andrej Babiš, spoke for about 2.5 hours. Okamura submitted two applications for the current block of speakers with priority right. SPD deputy chairman Radim Fiala and deputy speakers of the Chamber of Deputies Klára Dostálová (ANO) and Olga Richterová (Pirates) also want to speak in the same way.

At the outset, the Chamber decided, on the proposal of the coalition, that it would be able to act overnight. According to ČTK information from the morning meeting of the House’s wider leadership, today’s business day could end around 01:00 on Friday. The meeting should then continue from 09:00 on Friday.