Czechia: Ruling coalition divided over support for Ukraine

The new coalition government in Prague is made up of right-wing populists and members of the far right.

Its formation after the general election in early October was protracted and difficult, and it has only been in place for three weeks. One ministerial post remains empty following a controversy surrounding the coalition's preferred candidate. In addition, the requisite vote of confidence in the new cabinet has not yet been held in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech parliament.

Despite all this, the incomplete cabinet led by right-wing populist and billionaire Andrej Babis has already caused uproar on both the domestic and foreign policy fronts, and first cracks are beginning to appear in the coalition.

The main bone of contention is Czechia's support for Ukraine — an issue that dominated last fall's parliamentary election campaign.

In the run-up to the election, the three parties of the new coalition government sought to outdo each other with their promises to stop the country's support for Ukraine. Now in office, things look very different indeed.

The euroskeptic right-wing populists of Babis's Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) party and the Motorists for Themselves party are taking a more pragmatic line, among other things because of the pressure being exerted by European partners.

The pro-Russian far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party (SPD), on the other hand, is sticking to its tough anti-Ukrainian line.

Many observers in Czechia now fear that the country could be entering choppy domestic waters and that internationally, it could lose its reputation as a reliable European partner.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Babis announced that Czechia would continue what is known as the ammunition initiative for Ukraine, a program he repeatedly promised to shut down while on the campaign trail.

Within this program, Czechia coordinates the global procurement of artillery ammunition for Ukraine. The program is mainly funded by a number of EU states such as Germany and France and, to a lesser extent, by Czechia, too.

After attending the European meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris on Tuesday, Babis said that while the initiative will continue, Czechia will no longer contribute to its funding.

On the campaign trail last fall, Babis repeatedly criticized the initiative, which was the brainchild of Czech President Petr Pavel, as corrupt and untransparent.

With this decision, Babis is overriding the will of his pro-Russian coalition partner, the SPD, whose leader, Tomio Okamura, caused uproar with a speech just a few days previously.

Tokyo-born Czech-Japanese politician Okamura has been parliamentary speaker since November 2025. In this capacity, he gave a New Year's address on January 1, which turned into a fiercely anti-Ukrainian, anti-European tirade.

Okamura spoke of the "thieves of the Zelenskyy junta" who he said are building "golden toilets" with the help of Western governments.

He went on to say that it was not right to support a "completely senseless war" at the expense of "Czech pensioners, people with disabilities or families with children."

He also hinted that Czechia would leave the EU, saying that the country would "jump off the Brussels train" that he said is steering towards a Third World War.

The speech caused consternation and indignation in Czech politics.

President Pavel responded on X, writing that Okamura's speech "raises concern not only among our citizens, but also abroad, among our allies and partners."

Also posting on X, former Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that Okamura's speech "sounded as if it had been prepared in the Kremlin."

Ukraine was also quick to condemn Okamura's comments.

Ukraine's ambassador to Czechia, Vasyl Zvarych, said that the speaker's words on Ukraine were "offensive and full of hate."

Okamura's Ukrainian counterpart, Ruslan Stefanchuk, said that time will tell whether Okamura is "a useful idiot or an agent of the Russian secret service FSB."

The responses from Ukraine in turn led to a protest from the Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka, leader of the Motorists party, who said that Ambassador Zvarych's words were "inappropriate."

Macinka met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha on Tuesday. The encounter took the heat out of the situation and ended with an invitation for Macinka to visit Kyiv.

Czechia's prime minister, however, took five days to react to Okamura's speech. Posting on Instagram on Monday, Babis said "concerning the much-discussed speech by Tomio Okamura, I think that he spoke from the position of the SPD chairman and primarily wanted to address his voters."

The first cautiously critical reactions to Okamura's speech from Babis's party only came a week after the fact.

But this was not the only uproar caused by Okamura and his party.

One of Okamura's first acts as parliamentary speaker last November was to remove the Ukrainian flag from the Czech parliament building. It had been hanging there as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine since 2022.

Radim Fiala, leader of the SPD's parliamentary party, caused a scandal earlier this week when he expressed doubt that Russia had been behind an explosion at a Czech ammunition depot in Vrbetice in 2014 in which two people lost their lives.

It is practically beyond doubt that Russia's military intelligence service GRU was behind the attack. Indeed, it was Babis himself — prime minister at the time — who informed the country in April 2021 that it was so.

The SPD's recent anti-Ukrainian provocations are the result of power struggles within the party and, as Babis quite rightly said, an appeal to voters.

Okamura and some of his fellow party members seem to be fighting to establish who is the better hardliner, after support for the party in last October's election dropped by almost 5%.

After Babis announced that the Czech ammunition initiative for Ukraine would continue, Okamura seemed to back down.

He said that because the Czechs are not now funding it, it is no longer a Czech initiative.

It is unlikely that this will mean an end to disputes within the coalition.

Nevertheless, the whole uproar triggered by Okamura's speech has had a paradoxical but ultimately happy outcome for Ukraine.

The private Czech Gift for Putin initiative collects money for the Ukrainian army and uses the donations to buy weapons. Founder Martin Ondracek said that after Okamura's speech, there was a sudden leap in donations to the account.

This article was originally published in German.