Filip Turek Claims Credit for Someone Else's Achievement: Green Subsidy for Ostrava Project Was Approved Before He Even Joined the Ministry

Czech politician Filip Turek of the Motorists party boasted on social media about a nearly CZK 9.5 billion subsidy for building a new electric arc furnace at the Nová Huť steel plant in Ostrava, presenting it as a personal achievement of his parliamentary work. However, according to the subsidy program's records, the decision was actually made on December 9 — a full week before Turek and his party colleagues even took up their posts at the Ministry of the Environment on December 15, 2025.

The situation is ironic for two reasons at once. First, Turek had absolutely nothing to do with approving this subsidy. Second, this is a distinctly environmental project: an electric arc furnace produces significantly less carbon dioxide than a traditional blast furnace.

But the most ironic part is the source of the funding itself. The roughly CZK 9.5 billion subsidy comes from the Modernisation Fund, which is financed by revenue collected across the EU from the sale of carbon emission allowances under the ETS 1 trading scheme. In other words, the money for the project came directly from the Green Deal — the very same European "Green Deal" that Turek has repeatedly and publicly vowed to "scrap, scrap, and scrap."

It's a perfect closed loop: a politician who criticizes the EU's climate policy is now taking credit for a project funded precisely because of that policy — one, moreover, that was approved without any involvement from him whatsoever. Experts note that Turek is no stranger to headline-grabbing episodes, from helicopter joyrides with champagne to car crash controversies — but based on the timeline of the decisions, he simply had nothing to do with the Nová Huť subsidy.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz