Almost half of Czechs think the Motorist party’s honorary chairman and newly elected MP Filip Turek should quit politics altogether, according to a poll conducted by the NMS agency for Novinky.cz.
Turek has been the subject of a number of controversies, several of which have come to light in the last week. Denik N published an article a few days ago about Turek’s past racist and homophobic statements on social media, and news server iROZHLAS.cz reported yesterday that eight years ago he threatened a Saudi embassy employee with a picture of a gallows. Turek is being talked about as a possible foreign minister in the new government.
“A large part of the citizens would recommend Turek leave politics right away,” said Tereza Friedrichova, a political analyst at NMS. “Those who are more moderate would rather see him as just an ordinary MP who is not very visible.”
Approximately one quarter of respondents believe that Turek should retain only his mandate as an MP but not be appointed as a minister, 14% of respondents said he should become the foreign minister, and about 5% would support his appointment as a minister, but in a less important ministry.
Post-election negotiations on a coalition government are currently underway between the victorious ANO, far-right anti-EU Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists. So far, the parties have agreed that ANO will have nine seats in the government, including the prime minister, SPD three seats, and the Motorists four. They have not published their personnel proposals.
Turek does not have much support even among ANO voters. “Only 19% of [ANO voters] think the honorary chairman of the Motorists should continue to seek the role of minister, 31.5% see him as a rank-and-file MP, and 28.5% think he should consider leaving politics,” the agency said. The only two groups with a prevailing view that Turek should continue to seek the role of foreign minister are Motorist and SPD voters.
Two-thirds of all respondents said that appointing Turek as foreign minister would jeopardize the Czech Republic’s reputation in the world. By political allegiance, 90% of the voters of the Spolu coalition (ODS, TOP 09, KDU-CSL), Mayors and Independents (STAN) and Pirates, 47% of ANO voters, 27% of SPD voters, and even 15% of supporters of the Motorists think so.
A total of 68% of those surveyed considered the information published in the article in Denik N to be serious, with 44% perceiving it as very serious. “The case quickly became known to Czechs. The whole society shows a similar level of perception, whether a person is young, older, lives in a village or in a big city,” Friedrichova noted.
Turek has apologized for the statements, but denies writing some of them, and the party has filed criminal charges. Police announced yesterday that they have begun investigating Turek’s remarks on social media as possible crimes of defamation of nationality and race and approval of a crime.
President Petr Pavel said on Tuesday that if Turek’s statements on social media turned out to be authentic, it would disqualify him from any ministerial position.
Outgoing Prime Minister Petr Fiala agreed. “Clearly, he is not a suitable candidate for government,” he said. “Such a person cannot be a member of the government, it must have been clear to any reasonable and responsible person even before the articles in Denik N.”