Babiš complains of flood of letters demanding environment ministry be taken from Motoristé

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said in his Sunday video address on social media that he is receiving thousands of identical letters demanding that the Ministry of the Environment be taken away from the Motoristé party, and that he physically cannot keep up with answering them all. The same day, the head of that ministry and Motoristé leader Petr Macinka commented on the issue while taking part in a debate on CNN Prima News.

"You're sending two thousand letters"

"You write me letters, and I've always answered you, but when two thousand letters come in on one topic demanding that the Ministry of the Environment be taken away from Motoristé, there simply aren't enough human hours in the day to answer them all," Babiš complained in his traditional Sunday video.

According to him, the environmental ministry was not handed over to anyone arbitrarily: "Supposedly I gave environmental protection into the hands of Motoristé. But hold on — there was an election, there's a coalition. Brabec and I did a fair amount of good for the environment back in the day, everyone remembers that, of course," the prime minister said, before moving on to another topic — Tuesday's attempt by the opposition to bring a vote of no confidence in the government.

Macinka: I won't give up the portfolio

Macinka, who was returning from a work trip to the US at the time and had not yet seen the prime minister's video, said that it is actually "green activists" writing to Babiš. "I usually keep up with the prime minister's videos, but this time, as an exception, I haven't watched it yet — my apologies," the minister said.

He stressed that he has no intention of giving up the Ministry of the Environment: "If someone is genuinely unhappy with the ministry's work, that's worth thinking about. But I don't consider the opinion of aggressive green fundamentalists who glue themselves to the road every time something doesn't suit them to be authoritative."

Asked whether a reshuffling of ministerial portfolios within the coalition is possible after the municipal and senate elections, Macinka said that would require changing the coalition agreement — "and that would be a major discussion." According to him, there are no signs of such changes so far.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz