Cybertruck and Jokes about Klaus. How Turek Battled the Chasers in Brno and Sold Out a Pub

“Who was Superman’s wife in the movies?” puzzles a contestant from the crowd, while across from him the seasoned chaser Lišák already raises his card with the correct answer. On Saturday afternoon, Brno’s Zelný trh square was filled with stars of the TV quiz show The Chase, who stepped out of the studio to meet the public. But it wasn’t the only event drawing attention that day in the city center. Right next door, the Motorists were holding a rally. News portal iDNES.cz brings the final part of the series A Day with the Leader.

From a distance, it’s impossible to miss the massive Cybertruck, Elon Musk’s futuristic vehicle, parked beside their hotdog stand on wheels. “That’s not mine, it belongs to one of our supporters,” explains curious onlookers MEP and honorary party president Filip Turek. He arrived in Brno a week before the elections to support party chairman Petr Macinka.

On Dominikánské Square, dozens of people, mostly younger, came to get photos and autographs. One young man asked Turek to sign his red Make America Great Again Trump cap. Even a Roma man in his forties lined up for a picture with Turek.

“Want a photo with a Nazi, huh?” Turek jokes, referring to last year’s controversy when a photo of him with his arm raised out of a car window sparked headlines just before the elections. They take the photo together, and soon it’s time to move a street over for the main event.

At 6 p.m., Macinka and Turek are scheduled for a debate at the rooftop bar Terazza. The bar’s hall holds about a hundred people, but tonight many more have squeezed inside. People are packed tightly, even standing in the aisles between tables. It’s almost impossible to move. “We probably should’ve booked a bigger venue,” Turek remarks while pushing through the crowd to the stage. The turnout clearly pleases him.

“Looks like we can barely fit in here. Sorry, we underestimated the capacity. Hopefully there’s no rented crowd, because according to the polls, there shouldn’t be nearly this many of you,” Turek jokes again—this time poking fun at polling agency STEM, which last year, a week before the European elections, gave Motorists (together with Přísaha) 4.7 percent, only for them to later win 10.26 percent.

The debate begins with the question: who would the two politicians rather have a beer with—Fiala, Obama, Hřib, Konečná, or Rakušan? Turek answers without hesitation: “Definitely Obama. He’s one of the best speakers American politics has ever had. But he’s not black-and-white, I wouldn’t give him a Nobel Prize.” Macinka adds that Obama won points with him years ago when he attended a lecture by Václav Klaus at the University of Chicago.

A Joke about Klaus

Speaking of Klaus, Macinka recalls a joke: “Since you’ve got the best prime minister and world leader from Brno, here’s one: Václav Klaus and Petr Fiala went to lunch. They sit down, the waiter comes and asks what they’d like. Klaus says he’ll have schnitzel. The waiter asks, ‘And salad?’ Klaus replies, ‘Salad will have schnitzel too.’” The joke gets a laugh from parts of the room.

On a roll, Macinka shares a campaign anecdote: “We set up a booth right in front of the Brno University Hospital entrance. And your Aťa (as Health Minister Vlastimil Válek’s wife calls him—ed.) called the hospital director on the first day, demanding to know what was going on and insisting we leave. So we extended the permit for a whole year, because after the elections Aťa will have to walk past it every day on his way to work,” Macinka jabs at Válek, who headed the hospital’s Radiology Clinic before becoming minister and still keeps a small contract there.

The debate turns to same-sex unions, specifically the recent development in Slovakia where Fico’s amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman was written into the constitution. “We’re a conservative party, but the constitution shouldn’t describe biology. If anything, we should be updating the Bible instead. But don’t touch the constitution. Once you open it, the Pirates will crawl in and lay cuckoo eggs,” jokes the Motorists’ leader.

A Dispute over Czech Television

Throughout the evening, the audience nods along and applauds. Only one real disagreement arises—over license fees and Czech Television.

Macinka defends its news coverage. “I once lived for five years with a ČT reporter. The pace there is so crazy you don’t even have time for manipulation. Generally, I don’t mind the fee system; at most I’d exempt pensioners,” he says.

But a man in the audience interrupts him.

“They’re the ones who watch it the most!” he shouts. “Show me a 35-year-old who has time to sit in front of the TV. I’ve got at least 15 friends my age who don’t even own a television. There’s no time for it. Why should we pay? It’s total nonsense!” His outburst gets cheers from others.

Turek steps in to calm the situation: “I agree. I’d support the idea that only people who actually watch it should pay for it.”

After two and a half hours, the debate winds down. “I’ve been pushing through pneumonia, so I’m off to rest,” Macinka says, while a few more people approach the stage for autographs.

And if you’ve read this far and still don’t know the answer to the quiz question about Superman’s wife, here it is: it was reporter Lois Lane, played in this year’s film by Rachel Brosnahan.

Zdroj: iDnes