Andrej Babis, the presumed incoming Czech Prime Minister, has found disagreement with his potential coalition partners in the Motorists Party over the appointment of the party’s MPs as ministers in the new government.
On Saturday, Babis (ANO) said the best solution was for the Motorists to nominate experts to the cabinet, as SPD, the third likely member of the coalition, are doing.
However, on Czech Television’s Question Time yesterday, party leader Petr Macinka said that any candidates nominated by the Motorists for the new cabinet will be elected MPs. He said this position would remain unchanged even after today’s meetings between Babis, Macinka and the Motorists’ honorary president Filip Turek about the latter’s controversial statements on social media.
Macinka claimed that the position of the Motorists and Babis was not necessarily in conflict, as the conservative-populist party had been careful to bring real experts into the Chamber of Deputies.
Macinka described Turek as an “iconic figure” of the Motorists, although he has said a lot of stupid things. “I am not looking for replacements for Filip Turek,” he stressed in response to a question about whether the Motorists could eventually replace him with former MEP Jan Zahradil (formerly ODS).
The new attention on Turek’s past statements follows a report on Friday by Denik N, alleging that Turek had repeatedly posted openly racist, sexist and homophobic statements on Facebook, as well as numerous allusions to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The server said it had an archive of Turek’s later deleted posts and comments.
Turek is being talked about as a future foreign minister.
Turek described the report as an attempt to discredit him, and denied he was a racist. Babis said he considered the information serious and has not ruled out further action in connection with Monday’s meeting.
Macinka said yesterday that Turek is ready to explain the matter to President Petr Pavel at any time, and claimed that vested interests are trying to block the formation of the government. He said a criminal complaint against Denik N and the authors of the article is being prepared by Renata Vesecka, a former chief prosecutor and now an elected MP for the Motorists.
According to the article, Turek downplayed an arson attack on a Roma family in Vitkov in 2009, suggesting that the severe burns incurred by a Roma girl were a mitigating circumstance. The Roma organisation Romea said that “If this statement is true, it cannot be understood as anything other than an openly racist relativization of the attempted murder of a child.”
Macinka said yesterday that Denik N was trying to leech on the misfortunes of a girl who suffered serious burns in the attack.
In a statement to CTK, Pavel Tomasek, editor-in-chief of Denik N, said that the editorial board of the newspaper continues to stand firmly by everything it has written about Turek in recent days.
“We have no reason to change anything about our texts,” wrote Tomasek. He added that it was not his place to comment on the legal steps announced by the other side in public statements, but said everyone has the right to file a criminal complaint.
“We are absolutely sure that it is not us who have fulfilled the elements of the facts of any criminal offence, and we believe that the police will conscientiously and responsibly investigate all the circumstances of this case,” he said.
Radek Vondracek, deputy leader of ANO, said that if the reports of Turek’s behaviour were true, he would consider it scandalous behaviour by a politician being spoken of as a candidate for the position of foreign minister, while if they were found not to be true, it should be considered a scandalous action by Denik N.
ANO, which won last week’s election, is in talks to form a government with the Motorists and SPD. According to Friday’s agreement between the groups, ANO is to have nine seats in the cabinet, including the prime minister, SPD three seats, and the Motorists four.
