Prague, May 23 (CTK) – Czech-Japanese Hayato Okamura, older brother of anti-EU far right Freedom and Direct Democracy’s (SPD) leader Tomio Okamura, will run for the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) in the autumn Senate elections, KDU-CSL spokeswoman Denisa Morgensteinova told CTK on Wednesday.
Translator and interpreter Hayato Okamura, 51, will run in the Prague 8 ward.
KDU-CSL chairman Pavel Belobradek announced at a press conference later on Wednesday that Hayato Okamura was the last KDU-CSL candidate for the autumn Senate election to be presented to the public.
The KDU-CSL will send a total of 13 candidates to the election, while it will negotiate about support for candidates of other parties in the remaining 14 wards.
Hayato Okamura told reporters that he would like to be a candidate of all democratically thinking people and in the Senate, he would push for the Czech Republic to keep its pro-Western orientation.
Hayato Okamura’s nomination was approved by the KDU-CSL national committee. The KDU-CSL candidate will be supported by the Prague Greens and he would like to address other parties as well.
Last year, Hayato Okamura was running for the Christian Democrats in the general election as number five in Prague and he moved to the third position thanks to preferential votes.
However, the KDU-CSL won won merely one mandate in the capital for Prague 7 Mayor Jan Cizinsky. The party narrowly entered the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech parliament, gaining 5.8 percent of the vote and ten MPs in the 200-seat lower house.
Hayato’s brother Tomio Okamura, 45, scored success with his populist SPD that won 10.6 percent and 22 deputies.
Belobradek previously said the Christian Democrats would strive for becoming the strongest group in the Senate, the upper house, in the October election to its one-third.
At present, the Social Democrats (CSSD) are the strongest in the Senate having 24 senators and defending 13 seats in the election. They are followed by the KDU-CSL with 16 senators, defending three mandates. It may have 17 by the autumn if its candidate Michaela Blahova succeeds in the second round of the by-election in the Zlin ward, south Moravia.
The Christian Democrats have already presented some of their candidates for the Senate, such as Belobradek and former culture minister Daniel Herman. Zlin regional governor Jiri Cunek will be defending his mandate, too.
