Zelenskyy is to be stripped of the Czech Republic's highest state award

The representative of the right-wing populist party, Jindřich Rajchl, stated that such a decision should be made by analogy with Poland.

Їндржих Райхл/Фото: René Volfík, iROZHLAS.cz

30 June, 21:48

The coalition party "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) of the Czech Republic has initiated the process of stripping Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the highest state award of the Czech Republic – the Order of the White Lion. This is reported by Ceske Noviny, reports "European Pravda".

The representative of the SPD parliamentary faction, Jindřich Rajchl, stated that such a decision should be made by analogy with Poland, where President Karol Nawrocki previously stripped Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle.

According to Rajchl, the party plans to raise this issue at a coalition council meeting and appeal to the Chamber of Deputies with a proposal to initiate the stripping of the award.

"We cannot remain silent when our highest state award is held by a person who names military units after Nazi monsters," said Rajchl.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy received the Order of the White Lion in October 2022 from the then-President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman for "his bravery and courage in refusing an American offer of asylum and in deciding to remain in the then war-torn Kyiv" following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Czech legislation provides for the possibility of stripping state awards only in the case of a court verdict for an intentional crime committed for particularly shameful reasons, resulting in imprisonment for at least two years.

The SPD initiative was criticized by some opposition politicians. In particular, KDU-ČSL MP Benjamin Čintula hopes that representatives of the ANO movement and the "Mayors" party will have enough common sense not to support this proposal.

"Taking down flags and taking away awards, all accompanied by hateful, generalizing rhetoric. That's SPD's infamous policy in a nutshell – they managed to do it when ("Prime Minister) Andrej Babiš dragged them into power after years in a well-deserved political basement," said Vít Rakušan, chairman of the STAN party, on X.

"SPD wants to strip Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Lion. I would rather consider whether to limit the narcissism of some of its representatives. They obviously don't need it anyway when they receive instructions directly from Moscow and then just obediently carry them out," wrote Marek Ženíšek, deputy chairman of the TOP 09 party.

Order of the White Lion

The Order of the White Lion (Řád bílého lva) is the highest state award of the Czech Republic.

The order was established in 1922 to award foreign citizens – particularly distinguished political and public figures, and representatives of international organizations for services to the state.

We remind you that earlier, the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, decided to strip Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, which caused a political discussion and a series of mutual statements between Kyiv and Warsaw. In particular, later the head of the President's Office Kyrylo Budanov and the third president of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenkoannounced their refusal of the order.