Suing the president: how unusual is it in Czech politics?

Motorists’ Party MP Filip Turek says he will file a civil lawsuit against President Petr Pavel, seeking an apology for remarks explaining why he was not appointed environment minister. The case recalls earlier legal challenges faced by Czech presidents — rare, but not without precedent.

This is a civil lawsuit, not a constitutional dispute

The honorary president and MP of the Motorists’ Party, Filip Turek, says he will sue President Petr Pavel — not over constitutional authority, but over what he describes as harm to his personal reputation.

“I’d just like to briefly comment on the reasons given by the President of the Republic as to why he wants to violate the Constitution of the Czech Republic,” Turek said. “His justification affects me very deeply, and in the coming days I will file a civil lawsuit for protection of personality and will seek an apology from the President.”

Turek has stressed that he does not intend to challenge the president’s powers through a competence lawsuit, nor to exert pressure on the governing coalition. “We definitely do not want to file a competence lawsuit,” he said. “There will be no competence lawsuit against the president — but I will definitely file a lawsuit.”

Why President Pavel refused to appoint Turek

President Pavel declined to appoint Turek as environment minister, citing the MP’s past statements and online activity. Some of those remarks, Pavel wrote, raised serious concerns about Turek’s respect for democratic values and the constitutional order.

In a detailed letter to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, the president said that “there exists a multitude of circumstances which, taken together, reasonably cast doubt on Mr Filip Turek’s loyalty to the fundamental principles and values of the constitutional order.”

Pavel went on to say that Turek had “repeatedly glorified, or at least relativised, one of the worst totalitarian regimes of the 20th century — Nazi Germany,” and had seriously questioned “the dignity and equality of women and members of various minorities.” He also cited what he described as “a repeated lack of respect for the basic value of the rule of law — the willingness to obey the legal order of the state.”

The president concluded that the case was “entirely unprecedented since the adoption of the Constitution,” and that refusing the appointment was fully in line with constitutional principles.

Separately, Prague police are investigating social-media posts attributed to Turek as suspected criminal offences, including possible incitement to hatred or denigration of groups defined by nationality, race or ethnicity. The case remains open.

Not the first time: lawsuits against Czech presidents

While civil lawsuits against Czech presidents are uncommon, they are not new. In the early 1990s, former president Václav Havel was sued by publisher Petr Cibulka over remarks criticising the publication of unofficial lists of alleged communist secret police collaborators. Havel had said the lists had caused countless personal tragedies.

The courts rejected the lawsuit, ruling that Havel had acted in his capacity as president and could not be held personally liable. The case nevertheless helped shape early debates about presidential responsibility and freedom of expression in post-communist Czech society.

More extensive legal battles followed under former president Miloš Zeman, who faced multiple civil lawsuits over his public statements. In one high-profile case, Zeman was sued by his former adviser Zdeněk Šarapatka, whom he had publicly accused of incompetence. Courts eventually ruled that Zeman himself — not the state — must apologise.

That apology came only after Zeman had left office and after enforcement proceedings were launched. Another long-running case involved Zeman’s false claim that journalist Ferdinand Peroutka had praised Adolf Hitler, a dispute that ended with a formal apology issued by the state.

Against this backdrop, the lawsuit announced by Filip Turek adds another chapter to a small but significant body of legal disputes involving Czech presidents — rare, but far from unprecedented.

Source: English Radio