Filip Turek, the Motorists’ candidate for environment minister, will not be attending his scheduled meeting with President Petr Pavel today, having excused himself for health reasons, the Presidential Office announced on social media yesterday.
Petr Macinka, the leader of the Motorists, said on the Terezie Tomankova debate show on CNN Prima News that Turek had been suffering from a herniated disc for several days.
“President Pavel will receive only two of the original three ministerial candidates of the future government at Prague Castle on Monday, 8 December,” the Presidential Office said. “Filip Turek, the candidate for environment minister, has excused himself from tomorrow’s (Monday’s) meeting for health reasons.”
The president will thus only meet the candidate for culture minister Oto Klempir and the candidate for sports minister Boris Stastny. Both were nominated by the Motorists.
Turek is undergoing an examination and intensive medication, according to Motorists spokeswoman Barbara Stastna. “Doctors are doing their best,” she told CTK yesterday.
Turek wrote to the iDnes.cz news server that he might have to undergo surgery. “An old spinal injury has resurfaced and surgery is being discussed,” he said.
Boris Stastny (Motorists) said on the Questions with Vaclav Moravec debate programme that Turek was bedridden.
The president was supposed to receive Turek as the last candidate for the emerging government of ANO, the far-right SPD, and the Motorists. It was the most highly anticipated meeting of the ministerial candidates, as Pavel said last week that it was unlikely that Turek would become a minister, having faced strong criticism for controversial racist and homophobic posts on social media, on top of several prior controversial allegations. He has apologised for the posts, and denied authorship of some of them.
President Pavel said citizens should have more demanding criteria for ministers than simply not being prosecuted for a crime.
“We are not looking for a replacement for Filip Turek,” Macinka said yesterday on CNN Prima News. “We will nominate him. We’ll see how it turns out,” he said. He also ruled out the possibility that Motorists’ insisting on Turek’s nomination could jeopardize the appointment of the upcoming government with ANO and SPD.
Meanwhile, a new survey conducted at the end of November and beginning of December by Kantar CZ for Czech Television found that two-thirds of Czechs do not consider Turek a suitable candidate for minister. The poll was released on Vaclav Moravec’s program. Meanwhile, a separate poll published on Friday by NMS Research for Czech Radio found that over half of Czechs do not want Turek as environment minister.
