Czech folk singer publicly supports ultra-nationalist in runup to elections

The chair of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" movement, Tomio Okamura, has a new supporter. After meeting the famous singer Jaromír Nohavica last Sunday at a shopping center in Ostrava, he posted a photograph of the two of them to online social networks.

The post has sparked a wave of diverse reactions. "I met Jarek Nohavica in Ostrava, we had a chat and I am glad we have similar opinions about our current burning problems. I look forward to meeting him in future and I wish him well!" Okamura posted with the photo.

Which "current burning problems" the politician - who is infamous for his stance against immigrants and his opinions against Romani people - had in mind, he did not specify. The singer's works have not avoided the topic of minorities, most recently, for example, in his lyrics for the song "Dežo".

"Mr Okamura met me a Globus in Ostrava when we were shopping. He asked me to take a photograph with him and I was glad to do so. He's a nice guy," Nohavica told news server Lidovky.cz.

That news server also cited a political scientist who said the Ostrava-born singer's public support could aid Okamura. "People in the Moravian-Silesian Region perceive Jarek Nohavica to be 'their' recording artist, so if he were to assist Okamura anywhere it would be exactly in that region," Miloš Gregor of Masaryk University in Brno said. 

However, Gregor also said he believes the question is to what degree the singer's support would be consistent. "The elections are three months away and I do not believe the voters will remember by then that Jarek Nohavica and Tomio Okamura were photographed together and posted it to Facebook," he said.