Czech Pirates seek to remove Okamura as Chamber of Deputies speaker

Tomio Okamura called the Pirates’ proposal to remove him as speaker of the Chamber of Deputies “lies, shouting and nonsense”. The idea was floated on Saturday by MP Hřib, and according to Okamura there is no point in responding to constant attacks: he is focused on delivering the programme promised to voters.

What the speaker is accused of

Hřib wrote on the social network X that he had witnessed Okamura’s unprecedented intervention against civil society. In his words, such arrogance of power is unacceptable, and under the law the debate on the fees must be public. He cited Section 56 of the Chamber’s rules of procedure, under which the debate on bills concerning fees is always public. In the Pirates’ view, there was no legal reason to bar citizens from the session.

There are other reasons too, according to Hřib. Okamura is not behaving like a non-partisan speaker: on Friday and Saturday he removed opposition deputy speakers from chairing the session, broke long-standing customs such as agreeing the agenda in advance at the steering committee, then initiated a vote himself and rejected opposition caucuses’ requests for breaks. He personally proposed limiting the right to speak, even though there had been no obstruction yet. “He chaired the session in a thoroughly confused and certainly not impartial manner,” Hřib said.

Are there enough votes

Under the rules of procedure, the speaker of the Chamber can be recalled only on a written proposal from at least two fifths of all deputies. The opposition needs signatures from at least 80 of its 92 deputies in the 200-seat Chamber. The Pirates are counting on the support of the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) and TOP 09, while the Mayors and Independents (STAN) will still consult. The Pirates have 18 deputies, KDU-ČSL 16, TOP 09 nine and STAN 22.

The opposition already tried unsuccessfully to remove Okamura earlier this year, mainly because of his words in the New Year’s address. Given the government majority, a new attempt would probably not succeed either.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz