Okamura Strikes Back: Sues Justice Minister For Labeling SPD Fascist Party

Tomio Okamura SPD

Prague, Feb 28 (CTK) – Czech anti-EU Freedom and Direct Democracy’s (SPD) MP Jana Levova will file a legal complaint against Justice Minister Robert Pelikan (ANO) for having called the SPD a fascist party, she said in a letter sent to Pelikan that SPD chairman Tomio Okamura released to media today.

 

Levova, deputy head of the lower house constitutional-legal committee, wrote that Pelikan should realise the serious character of his ministerial post.

 

She also pointed to the Jewish roots of her family.

 

“This is why your statements in an interview with Aktualne.cz have touched me and my family,” Levova wrote.

 

“If you are speaking about our SPD movement as about a fascist party, you should be aware of the consequences of your behaviour. This is why I will demand that you assume legal responsibility for your statements and will file a legal complaint against you after consulting my lawyer,” she said.

 

Pelikan uttered the statements when commenting on the talks between ANO and the SPD on its support for the second government of ANO chairman Andrej Babis. He said it would be unacceptable to him to be in a government that would lean on the SPD in any sense.

 

“I do not want to end up in a position to have to correct my opinions and steps according to a fascist party’s wishes. This is unacceptable to me,” Pelikan told Aktualne.cz.

 

Babis’s ANO minority cabinet resigned after it lost a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Czech parliament, in January. President Milos Zeman entrusted Babis with talks on the formation of a new government. Babis is now negotiating on cooperation with or tolerance of his new cabinet with other parties.