Official's Car Set on Fire — Now Town Hall Demands He Apologize, or Face Court

In Hluboká nad Vltavou (South Bohemia), opposition local councillor Martin Weber of KDU-ČSL, whose car was deliberately set on fire back in February, now finds himself threatened with a lawsuit — this time from the town's ruling coalition.

Eleven councillors from the governing coalition, including mayor Tomáš Jirsa and deputy mayor Pavel Dlouhý (both ODS), sent Weber a pre-trial demand letter through a law firm. They are demanding a public apology for his repeated suggestions that the arson attack on his car was linked to local politics, and his implication that the attack was meant to intimidate him into dropping his criticism of the town leadership.

According to the law firm Slobodník & Partners, Weber's statements "triggered media coverage damaging to the reputation" of the town and its council members. If the councillor fails to apologize by the end of July, the coalition intends to seek a court-ordered apology. He's being asked to apologize in no fewer than ten different media outlets — ranging from national TV channels and major news sites to local papers and even Facebook.

Weber, an architect by profession who has repeatedly criticized decisions made by the town leadership, has no intention of apologizing and isn't worried about going to court. "In principle, I welcome any way to loudly and openly show the public what power games are being played in Hluboká's politics — including an open court case," he said.

The fact that he received eleven identical official letters at once only confirms his suspicions, the councillor says. He described the whole affair as "a staged display of the entire coalition pressuring a rival" just months ahead of the municipal elections.

The entire KDU-ČSL party has rallied behind Weber. The head of the party's South Bohemian branch and member of parliament František Talíř was especially blunt: "This is a disgusting political culture. While we're fighting in parliament to keep the nineties from coming back, in Hluboká they never actually ended. This is political Palermo," he said, adding that instead of supporting a colleague whose car was set on fire, local authorities are threatening him with a lawsuit.

With municipal elections just three months away, national party leaders have already stepped into the dispute. KDU-ČSL chairman Jan Grolich discussed the situation with ODS leader Martin Kupka at the Colours of Ostrava festival. "I told him I find it strange that our councillor gets his car torched, and then the town leadership goes and sends him a pre-trial demand telling him to stay quiet and apologize," Grolich said, clearly unhappy.

Tomáš Jirsa, who has served as Hluboká's mayor without interruption since 1994 and has also been a senator since 2004, declined to explain why the coalition chose this particular way of demanding an apology.

Meanwhile, the town's leadership had earlier offered a reward of 200,000 crowns for information leading to the arsonist. "We want to make it clear that we're interested in catching those truly responsible. This isn't just about the attack itself, but about who's behind it," mayor Jirsa said back in April.

According to police, the arson investigation is nearing completion, with the case expected to go to court within days. Investigators have already charged three people: two men allegedly responsible for planning and carrying out the arson, and a third man who police say organized the crime and later attempted to influence witnesses and the course of the investigation. Reportedly, he tried to convince one of his accomplices to tell investigators that Martin Weber himself had ordered the arson attack on his own car.

By the Around Prague newsroom