Future Czech Opposition Criticises Okamura's Delegation in Slovakia

Prague, 2 December (TASR-correspondent) - Parties likely to form the future Czech opposition have criticised the Czech Republic's Chamber of Deputies Speaker Tomio Okamura for traveling to Slovakia only with MPs of the emerging coalition, representatives of the parties told an extraordinary press conference on Tuesday. According to them, this is the first time this has ever happened, and they've therefore decided to organise their own trip. Next week, they plan to meet the opposition in Slovakia, and they also want to ask Parliamentary Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) for a meeting. "We've decided to respond to Mr. Okamura's trip to Slovakia, which is taking place significantly and exclusively on the basis of the emerging governing coalition and, furthermore, in a situation in which the current government is being quite heavily slandered there. We consider this to be a bad and wrong decision ... So, we've decided that ... we'll travel to Slovakia next week to try to meet the Slovak opposition and ask Mr. Rasi to receive us. We'll see what his reaction will be," announced chairman of the ODS parliamentary caucus Marek Benda. The composition of the Lower House speaker's delegation was also criticised on social media by the Czech Republic's outgoing foreign minister Jan Lipavsky. According to him, it looks like foreign trips are being misused for the sake of party politics. He stressed that the Czech Republic should also be represented by the opposition, not just a narrow circle of Okamura's 'yes men'. Okamura is making his first foreign trip as speaker of the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday and Wednesday (3 December). His delegation consists only of members of the ANO, SPD and 'Motorists Themselves' parties. Some members of the Chamber's organising committee, which decides on MPs' trips, wanted at least the deputy chairman of the Lower House for ODS, Jan Skopecek, to be able to join the delegation, but representatives of the emerging governing coalition didn't allow him to participate. The head of the chamber stated that Skopecek wasn't yet deputy chairman when the visit was being arranged. At the same time, he said that he wanted the visit to Slovakia to take place in a friendly atmosphere, which is why he only approached MPs who he believed would be an asset to the delegation. am/df