Pátek 29. března 2024, svátek má Taťána
130 let

Lidovky.cz

Minister appoints ‘ex-extremist’ as adviser

  15:43

Ladislav Bátora, a one-time National Party (NS) candidate, will advise the education minister on economic matters, starting with property

Ladislav Bátora, kandidát Národní strany, se skutečně stal Dobešovým poradcem. foto: © ČESKÁ POZICEČeská pozice

Education Minister Josef Dobeš (Public Affairs, VV) has appointed Ladislav Bátora — a former candidate of the extreme-right National Party (NS) — as his economic adviser, in defiance of Prime Minister Petra Nečas (Civic Democrats, ODS) and despite criticism from the opposition parties, a number of the country’s universities, and groups representing the Roma minority.

“I have met Bátora many times. I could not work with a person who holds extremist views. And Mr Bátora is not one of them,” Dobeš told a news conference on Monday, at which he publicly acknowledged for the first time that he chose Bátora based on the recommendation of Petr Hájek, an adviser to President Václav Klaus.

In the 2006 elections, although technically an independent, he was the election leader of the crypto-fascist National Party (NS), which openly denied the holocaust of the Roma and advocated “emigration of the Gypsies currently living in the territory of the Czech Republic to India.” In 2007, the NS’s youth organization even announced a march through Prague’s Jewish Quarter to mark the anniversary of the anti-Jewish pogrom in the Third Reich known as of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.

Bátora claims, however, that the NS only became xenophobic in the campaign preceding the European elections in 2009, when he no longer had anything common with it the party. Leaving aside his controversial past, what exactly are his qualifications for the post of economic advisor to Dobeš?

“I’m ready for the task; I have an economic education. I have also worked in building administration, and for 12 years in the energy sector,” he told Czech Position. According to Bátora, from 1984 to 1992 he worked in the forerunner to state-controlled power utility CEZ, in the field of building management.

‘Media lynching’

Bátora’s connections to the Castle are clear: He has known Hájek for three or four years, according to his statement Monday, and Klaus’ secretary Ladislav Jakl — who recently defended the actions of the conservative Akce D.O.S.T. (“enough”) initiative, of which Bátora is the chairman, for over twenty years. ‘If I had to identify with anyone, it would definitely be Jörg Haider or Jean-Marie Le Pen.’

D.O.S.T. is a civic initiative that supports the civil rights, freedoms and traditional values of Czech culture and statehood. The weekly Respekt recently quoted Bátora as saying, “If I had to identify with anyone, it would definitely be Jörg Haider or Jean-Marie Le Pen.”

Bátora has claimed to be the victim of a “media lynching” — so is he ready to withstand more intensive grilling by the fourth estate? “No one can be fully prepared for anything; I cannot predict what will happen,” he said. But it is not just pressure from the media that he has to worry about.

Last month, the Academic Council of the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University (FFUK) in Prague issued a statement protesting against Bátora’s possible appointment to the Education Ministry. Their stance was supported by the student chamber of the Council of Universities and by the Rector of the Higher Technical College in Brno (VUT).

“If I were to say that I consider today’s decision by the Education Ministry to be unfortunate it would be rather euphemistic,” Philosophical Faculty of Charles University (FFUK) dean Michal Stehlík said.

Opposition politicians also consider Bátora to be an unsuitable choice due to his past. “It was an act carried out by a powerful minister [Dobeš] who simply wants to show that he can do as he pleases,” said Vlasta Bohdalová (Social Democrats, ČSSD), the shadow minister of education.

Representatives of Amnesty International, the Association for Opportunities for Young Migrants — Meta, the Open Society Fund, People in Need, the League of Human Rights last month also sent an open letter to Dobeš urging him not to appoint Bátora, the Czech news agency ČTK reported.

See related article: Extremism has no place at Prague Castle

Šárka Hamrusová: Díky laktační poradkyni jsem si přestala myslet, že je chyba ve mně
Šárka Hamrusová: Díky laktační poradkyni jsem si přestala myslet, že je chyba ve mně

Šárka chtěla kojit. Chvíli to ale vypadalo, že se jí to nepodaří. Díky správně zvolené laktační poradkyni nakonec dosáhla úspěchu. Poslechněte si...