President Petr Pavel has rejected a controversial candidate for the post of environment minister. Filip Turek of the Motorists party faces numerous allegations over racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook posts.
Election-winner Andrej Babis went to Prague Castle on Wednesday to present President Petr Pavel with his list of cabinet nominees.
They included Filip Turek, the candidate for the post of Czech environment minister put forward by the conservative, euroskeptic Motorists for Themselves party, one of Babis’ two coalition allies.
Turek, an ex-racing driver, has faced intense media scrutiny over allegedly racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook posts, several Hitler salutes, and an incident involving a Saudi diplomat and a spent ammunition cartridge.
The Motorists originally put him forward for the post of foreign minister, and party leader Petr Macinka as environment minister. However, a last-minute change on Wednesday morning saw the names reversed.
Pavel rejects Turek for cabinet post
But even this was not enough to satisfy the president. “The president’s position is that he doesn’t think Mr. Turek should be in the cabinet,” Andrej Babis told reporters after his latest meeting with Pavel.
“I’ll now go back to speak to the Motorists party and we’ll decide how to proceed,” said Babis, adding that President Pavel would speak to all ministerial candidates over the next two weeks.
A flurry of snowflakes fell on the bank of microphones in the courtyard of Prague Castle as Babis explained what would happen in the month leading up to Christmas — by which time he hopes to be named prime minister — but festive cheer is in short supply.
Allegations of racism, sexism and homophobia
Turek’s difficulties began when the Czech daily newspaper Denik N published a series of screenshots it said were deleted posts and comments harvested from his Facebook account.
In 2010, when a group of neo-Nazi sympathizers were given long prison sentences for an arson attack on a house inhabited by a Roma family — that resulted in a two-year-old girl being seriously burned — Turek allegedly wrote there should have been “extenuating circumstances” for the sentence, as the family was Roma.
In 2015, claimed Denik N, Turek appears to have used a racist slur when referring to US President Barack Obama and later allegedly referred to a majority-African American area of Los Angeles as “Planet of the Apes.”
A few years later, when the Munich City Council requested permission to illuminate the Allianz Arena football stadium in rainbow colors during the Euro 2020 championship in show of LGBTQ+ support, Turek allegedly shared a post on the story with the comment “it seems the last proud German died in 1945.”
The list went on.
Turek denies he is Nazi sympathizer
Denik N claimed there were numerous posts by Turek in which he referred to himself as “Vudce” (Czech for “Führer”) as well as “Duce,” and his Prague apartment as the “Eagle’s Nest” — a reference to Hitler’s mountain retreat in Bavaria.
Turek categorically denies accusations he is a racist or a Nazi sympathizer.
Originally describing the Denik N story as a hit job by hostile media, he later denied writing some of the deleted comments outright and demanded proof. Other posts he described as simply his brand of “black humor.” Some, he said, were the result of lending someone his phone in a bar.
Turek similarly dismissed several photos of him performing the Nazi salute as a joke, and not meant seriously.
Will Turek reconsider his nomination?
Most, however, agree that Turek, who boasts a collection of luxury cars and has a seemingly visceral aversion to the European Green Deal, is hardly a good fit for environment minister.
“Above all, Filip Turek himself would not enjoy being at the environment ministry,” said Jindrich Sidlo, a Czech journalist and political commentator.
“It’s not what he dreamed of — travelling the world, feeling that he belongs to high society and taking part in shaping history,” Sidlo told DW. “I wouldn’t be surprised if ultimately he reconsiders his nomination.”
Turek’s links to scandals mount up
President Pavel has previously made it known that Filip Turek’s comments were the main stumbling block to his appointment.
However, Turek has also admitted placing a spent rifle cartridge and a drawing of a gallows on the roof of a car belonging to an employee of the Saudi embassy following an altercation. He claimed the man had been harassing his girlfriend.
Some journalists, meanwhile, spotted that the notes Babis was carrying on Wednesday suggested the president also had problems with Turek admitting to speeding on a Czech motorway at 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour), allegedly failing to declare €3 million ($3.47 million) in property, and claims he had built a garage without the proper planning permission.
Source : https://www.dw.com/en/czech-president-rejects-hitler-salute-nominee-for-minister/a-74923743
