- The dispute over the nomination of Filip Turk as Minister of the Environment is deadlocked.
- Prime Minister Babiš does not want to file a lawsuit and does not actively support Turk.
- Motorists can demand concessions or threaten to leave the government.
According to Czech political scientist Miloš Brunclík, a deadlock occurred during the nomination of MP and honorary president of the Motoristi sebe party Filip Turk to the post of Czech Minister of the Environment. According to him, it is possible that the Motorists will urge Babiš to toughen up the president.
However, he thinks that Pavel will win this dispute and Turk will not become a minister. However, according to him, it will not be free – Motorists will probably want to negotiate some program concessions. A political scientist from the Institute of Political Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University (IPS FSV UK) in Prague said this in an interview with a TASR reporter.
The President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, refused to appoint Turk, but the Motorists insist on his name, and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš also does not want to file a competent lawsuit against the President, which would resolve this dispute. “President Pavel has no reason to retreat, he would lose face. Finally, he would welcome the jurisdictional lawsuit. And on the other hand, Motorists also do not want to lose face. The prime minister should play a decisive role here, it is his government, but he does not want to get into a conflict… I think that maybe nothing will happen now and that it will be avoided,” Brunclík outlined a possible next scenario.
According to him, motorists may be waiting for Babiš to toughen up on the president. At the same time, however, he pointed out that the prime minister does not particularly care about the Turk. “He would perhaps risk losing popularity by clashing with the president and the fact that the attention of the media and civil society would be directed to this conflict – and he does not want it there. He takes his hands away from the Turk. He brought his nomination because the Motorists wanted it, but he doesn’t care about him at all. I never noticed him wanting to fight for him“, the political scientist pointed out.
One of the possible tactics of the Motorists could be to put pressure on Babiš in the sense that if Turk is not a minister, they will leave the government. According to Brunclík, this would be a significant problem for Babiš, as it would significantly complicate any enforcement of the program. He reminded that the head of the ANO movement needs both the Motorists and the SPD, especially for the key vote on extradition for criminal prosecution.
“Perhaps at the moment when Andrej Babiš plays this and the House of Representatives refuses to extradite him, he will have a little freer hands and tell the Motorists: I will come to an agreement with someone else. It is hanging in the air that he might be able to negotiate support from, for example, some other party. Although everyone excludes this option, but what is not today, may be tomorrow,” he pointed out.
In any case, he thinks that in the end the president will probably succeed in this dispute and the Turk will not become a minister. “I don’t see a very clear outcome of the situation here. I would expect that in the end the Motoristi would rather give in – that they would, for example, negotiate some programmatic concessions. For example, the Turk will only be a deputy minister and they will say: we retreated terribly, we suffered terribly, but we want something else in return,” explained Brunclík from the FSV UK as one of the possible solutions.
At its regular Monday meeting, the Czech government approved the creation of the position of government plenipotentiary for climate policy and the Green Deal. He will become the deputy and honorary president of the Motoristi sebe party Filip Turek. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced this after the government’s negotiations, saying that it is a temporary solution, reports TASR in Prague.
The Minister of Health for ANO Adam Vojtěch responded to this in front of journalists on Monday that the law does not allow a government plenipotentiary to lead a ministry – according to him, only a minister or a temporarily delegated minister from another department can do it, as now the Minister of Foreign Affairs from the Motorists Petr Macinka.
