Prague, Oct 26 (CTK) – Radim Fiala will head the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement’s group in the Czech Chamber of Deputies, which elected him to the post unanimously at its first meeting following the October 20-21 general election on Thursday, SPD leader Tomio Okamura has announced.
This is for the first time that the SPD has its own group of deputies. In the previous lower house, it had only three deputies, who were elected for Okamura’s previous movement, Dawn, in 2013, whose group split during the election period.
Radim Fiala, 48, has been a lawmaker since 2006.
Originally, he was a lawmaker for the Civic Democrats (ODS) but he left the party in protest against the tax increases by then ODS chairman Petr Necas’s cabinet in 2010-2013.
In the previous election term, he was a deputy head of the lower house budget committee and a member of the organisational committee for some time.
The SPD group also elected Radek Rozvoral, a central Bohemian town mayor, as its deputy chairman.
Fiala said the SPD now has approximately 7,000 members and further 4,500 membership applications is being processed.
Okamura said about 50 people a week wanted to join the movement before the elections.
Fiala said all new MPs have been working for the SPD for at least two years.
The SPD, which fared fourth in the elections, gaining 22 seats in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies, seeks a post of a lower house deputy chairman for its leader Okamura. Its right to fill it was recognised by the election-winning ANO movement earlier on Thursday.
The SPD, for its part, said it will support Radek Vondracek as ANO’s candidate for lower house chairman rather than Petr Fiala, the head and candidate of the election runner-up ODS.
