The new Speaker of the Czech Chamber of Deputies, Tomio Okamura, ordered the removal of the Ukrainian flag from the Parliament building. The leader of the right-wing populist Freedom and Direct Democracy party stated that “the Czech Republic comes first” and promised to remove Ukrainian flags from public institutions in the country.
Tomio Okamura posted a video of the Ukrainian flag being removed on social media.
The Ukrainian flag was installed on the Czech parliament building in February 2022. Tomio Okamura announced his decision to remove the Ukrainian flag on his first day in his new position and personally held the ladder while a worker removed the Ukrainian national symbol. He was elected speaker of the lower house of the Czech parliament on November 5 in a secret ballot.
“The Czech Republic comes first,” Okamura said.
The politician is known for criticizing Ukrainian flags on public buildings in the Czech Republic and promised his supporters before the election that as soon as the SPD came to power, all Ukrainian flags would be removed.
Právě jsem nechal sundat ukrajinskou vlajku z budovy Poslanecké sněmovny pic.twitter.com/1dcxVrbAQs
— Tomio Okamura (@tomio_cz) November 6, 2025
According to Novinky.cz, deputies from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which was part of the former ruling coalition in the Czech Republic, responded to Okamura’s action by hanging a Ukrainian flag from the window of the parliamentary club in the Chamber of Deputies building.
“We at ODS decided to quickly correct the new speaker’s first step,” they said.
They were supported by the Mayors and Independents (STAN) and Pirates parties.
“The Ukrainian flag on the Chamber of Deputies building was a symbol of humanism and solidarity with a nation facing brutality and an unjust war,” said former Chamber Speaker Markéta Pekarová Adamová.