The far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), one of the junior parties in the Czech government coalition, are calling for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to be stripped of the highest Czech state honour, the Order of the White Lion, MP Jindrich Rajchl (SPD/PRO) told reporters yesterday.
He said the Czech Republic should follow the example of Poland, where President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelenskiy of the Order of the White Eagle in response to his decision to name a Ukrainian special forces unit the Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
SPD, which is led by parliamentary speaker Tomio Okamura, will push within the government coalition for the Chamber of Deputies to propose to President Petr Pavel that the Order be revoked.
Presidential spokesperson Vojtech Seliga told CTK that neither the constitution nor the law grants the president the authority to revoke a state decoration, which is possible only on the basis of a final court decision.
SPD is one of two small parties propping up the coalition led by ANO, alongside the Motorists.
The decision to bestow the UPA designation on the special forces unit for its achievements in the current war against Russia has sparked outrage in Poland, as UPA nationalists were involved in massacres of Poles during World War II. Ukrainians view members of the UPA primarily as fighters for their homeland’s freedom and independence, as they defend themselves against Russian aggression.
Nawrocki decided to revoke the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honour, about two weeks ago. Zelenskiy subsequently announced that he had mailed the award back to the Polish president. The head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Kyrylo Budanov, the Ukrainian ambassador to Warsaw, Vasyl Bodnar, and former presidents Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko have also returned their Polish honours.
Rajchl, who heads the SPD deputies’ group, stated yesterday that SPD intends to raise the issue at the coalition council. The party believes that the Chamber of Deputies should propose that the president revoke Zelenskiy’s order.
“We cannot remain silent when our highest state order is held by a man who names military units after Nazi monsters,” Rajchl said.
Zelenskiy received the Order of the White Lion in October 2022 from President Milos Zeman. At the time, Zeman cited the primary reason for the award as “his bravery and courage in rejecting the U.S. offer of a safe haven and remaining in Kyiv, which was under attack at the time,” following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“A state decoration awarded or conferred by the President of the Republic may be revoked only on the basis of a final court decision imposing the penalty of forfeiture of honorary titles and decorations,” said Seliga. According to the law, this penalty may be imposed upon conviction with a prison sentence of at least two years for an intentional criminal offence committed with particularly reprehensible motives, and only in the event of a final court decision.
The SPD proposal has been criticised by some opposition politicians.
KDU-CSL MP Benjamin Cincila said he hopes that representatives of the Motorists and ANO will have enough sense not to support it. Speaking to reporters before the Chamber of Deputies session, he said that KDU-CSL were fundamentally opposed to the proposal.
“I consider this a truly cowardly and shameful act. It fits perfectly with SPD’s modus operandi,” stated another KDU-CSL MP, Vaclav Platenik.
“Taking down flags and revoking honours – all accompanied by hateful, sweeping rhetoric. This is the entire inglorious SPD policy in a nutshell,” said Vit Rakusan, leader of the opposition Mayors and Independents (STAN). “This is all they are capable of after [Prime Minister and ANO leader] Andrej Babis pulled them out of the political basement, where they had rightfully belonged for years, and brought them to power.”
“SPD wants to strip Volodymyr Zelenskiy of the Order of the White Lion. I’d rather be considering whether some of SPD leaders should have their legal capacity restricted,” wrote TOP 09 deputy leader Marek Zenisek on social media. “They obviously don’t need it anyway, since their instructions come straight from Moscow and they just obediently parrot them.”
