Petr Macinka, the Czech Republic’s new environment minister, has started his tenure by eliminating his ministry’s climate-protection section, consistent with his outspoken skepticism of radical climate-change ideology.
Politico reports:
Macinka had promised ahead of the country’s Oct. 3-4 election that “green blood will run,” and on taking office Monday announced that “the climate crisis is over today.”
“In the new staffing structure of the Ministry of the Environment that we are preparing for January 1, 2026, the climate protection section is no longer included,” Macinka wrote on social media Thursday evening [December 18].
Macinka, who also leads the conservative Motorists for Themselves (AUTO) party, has previously spoken against radical climate-change ideology. From Politico:
Petr Macinka … made a bold symbolic entrance when meeting the president on Oct. 6 in a massive Ram 1500 pickup, signaling his opposition to the EU’s Green Deal and the 2035 combustion engine ban.
Last year, Macinka said that if his party makes it into the government “green blood will run,” and recently stated that “the idea that humans are the sole cause of climate change is funny.”
He wants to leave the Paris climate agreement and roll back protection for the Soutok protected landscape area, part of the so-called Moravian Amazon.
Macinka and his AUTO party entered the Czech government via a coalition agreement with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’ populist ANO party and the conservative Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party. As the Insider Report previously reported, the three parties won the country’s parliamentary elections on October 3-4, replacing a more liberal government.
It is unclear how long Macinka, who concurrently serves as foreign minister, will hold the position of environment minister. He is currently serving in the latter position on an interim basis, since fellow AUTO member Filip Turek, whom Babiš proposed to serve as environment minister, was hospitalized with a herniated disc. Turek is also under police investigation for claims of sexual assault and hate speech — the Czech Republic, like most European countries, criminalizes “hate speech” — so it is unclear whether President Petr Pavel will ultimately appoint him to the position.
Regardless, Macinka’s first actions in office are an encouraging development in a country that is relatively committed — by European standards — to individual freedom and limited government.
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