A New Role Created for Him: Turek to Become Government Envoy for Climate Policy and the Green Deal

The Czech government, at its regular Monday session, approved the creation of the position of government envoy for climate policy and the Green Deal. The role will be filled by MP and honorary president of the Motorists for Themselves party, Filip Turek. After the government meeting, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced that this is a temporary solution.

“This is a temporary solution proposed by the Motorists so that Mr. Turek can start working on his agenda at the Ministry of the Environment,” said Babiš.

Motorists’ chairman Petr Macinka, who currently serves as Minister of Foreign Affairs and also oversees the environment, stated that the president is complicating the situation for the government. “He is approaching Article 68 of the Czech Constitution in a highly creative way, but we need to function somehow. That’s why we took this step: today, the government dissolved the position of government envoy for international climate negotiations and established the role of government envoy for climate policy and the Green Deal,” Macinka explained.

According to Macinka, Turek’s role will be to coordinate ministries in developing negotiations and implementing EU policies and measures related to climate and the Green Deal, giving the role an inter-ministerial scope. He will focus on the economic and social impacts for the Czech Republic and negotiate with industry representatives, employers, and experts. “He will also represent the Czech government at selected EU meetings and at some informal international consultations,” Macinka added.

He emphasized that this is only a technical solution, which should eventually be followed by a constitutional one. “But for that, we will need the cooperation of the president to resolve it constitutionally and appoint Mr. Turek. So we do not yet consider this matter closed. The Motorists insist that Filip Turek should become Minister of the Environment. Constitutional lawyers should not debate this technical solution, but rather why the president is violating the Constitution,” Macinka noted.

He indicated that the party is preparing further steps but did not specify them. He said only that these steps are different from the personality rights lawsuit that Turek mentioned last Friday. According to Macinka, that lawsuit is still justified. “The president cannot demean an upright politician in this way, whom he evidently does not like,” he said, referring to the president’s letter to the prime minister explaining why he refused to appoint Turek.

At a press conference, Babiš emphasized that he no longer wants to hear Turek’s name on television. “Hopefully this will end this week… We are here to prepare the budget and implement our program, not to deal with Turek from morning to night,” he remarked. When asked further questions about Turek, he said he wants to put it “behind him.” “I have nothing more to say on this. It’s up to the Motorists what steps they want to take, but I will really not deal with it anymore,” Babiš concluded.

Before attending the coalition council, Turek told reporters that as government envoy for the Green Deal, he would also ensure the functioning of the Ministry of the Environment and, in this role, would wait until he is appointed minister.

“We envision that there could be a position of government envoy, let’s say for the Green Deal, which could handle the main topics at the Ministry of the Environment. The ministry cannot go completely on autopilot. Minister (Petr) Macinka is handling the agenda, of course, but both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment are so time-demanding that it would not be beneficial in the long term,” Turek said in the morning.

When asked whether he thinks President Petr Pavel might eventually appoint him, Turek said he hopes the president “comes to his senses” and starts following the law.

He considers Pavel’s explanations for rejecting his nomination unacceptable and inappropriate. Regarding the personality rights lawsuit he plans to file against the president, Turek on Monday described it as only a “symbolic matter.” He explained that such a dispute is not easy to win or even file correctly, and that the Finance Ministry would have to apologize on behalf of the president. “The lawsuit will somehow happen, but I do not know whether the president will act like a man and apologize to me,” the MP said.

Turek stressed that he is unsure to what extent Pavel realizes the potential harm to the Czech Republic if the Ministry of the Environment is left without someone continuously managing it. On whether he will wait in the envoy position until he becomes minister, he replied that it could be said that way. “I truly do not aspire to be a minister at any cost; it is not my lifelong dream, and I had expected that I would be more suitable for the Foreign Affairs ministry. However, we made a concession to the president, and we really cannot make further concessions, as it would be at the expense of state functioning,” Turek added.

On Friday, Prague Castle published a letter in which Pavel extensively justified to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš why he rejected the nomination. According to the president, Turek repeatedly showed a lack of respect for the Czech legal system and constitutional values, glorified Nazi Germany, questioned the dignity and equality of women and ethnic minorities, and downplayed violent hate crimes. The honorary president of the Motorists responded that he was deeply hurt and will demand an apology from the head of state.

Fiala: Turek’s Appointment as Envoy Circumvents the Constitution and Government Rules

According to former Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, the position of government envoy for the Green Deal cannot replace a minister. The former head of the Czech government considers it a violation of the Constitution and democratic rules of governance. He wrote this on Monday on social media platform X.

“A government envoy is not and cannot be a position that replaces a minister. A ministry must be run by a member of government, not an envoy. This circumvents the Constitution and democratic rules of governance. And, by the way, it was Andrej Babiš who spent the last four years constantly shouting that there should be no ‘political sinecures.’ It took him less than a month to create one himself to satisfy a coalition partner,” Fiala wrote.

In the past, Babiš criticized Fiala’s cabinet for creating multiple positions, allegedly just to ensure that each party in the original five-party coalition got a post it wanted. He criticized, for example, the positions of Minister for European Affairs or Minister for Legislation. Since becoming prime minister again, he has emphasized that his government will reduce the number of officials to save public funds.

Source: Pravda.sk