MP Filip Turek says he has fulfilled, as the court decision required, his apology to Hnutí Duha; the organisation insists that he has not done so and threatens further legal steps.
On 7 October 2026, Filip Turek, a Member of Parliament for Motoristé, said that he had fulfilled his obligation to apologise to Hnutí Duha and considers the matter settled. Hnutí Duha says that the apology does not correspond to the decision of the Municipal Court in Prague and that, unless a proper apology is published, it intends to proceed further by legal means.[1][2][3][4][5]
Statements and court proceedings
In April 2026, Turek wrote on Facebook that “several people died during the floods because the activist Duha prevented the construction of a needed dam”. He described the people working in the organisation as parasites who need to be exterminated.[2][4][5]
In June 2026, Hnutí Duha filed a lawsuit against Turek and also against the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Motoristé chairman Petr Macinka. Turek did not respond to the lawsuit within the set time limit, and the Municipal Court in Prague therefore ruled in his case without a hearing, by a judgment on acknowledgment of the claim. Macinka, who had called the movement a terrorist organisation, responded to the lawsuit on time. Court spokeswoman Kateřina Eliášová said on 5 October 2026 that a hearing can be expected to be scheduled in his case, with no date yet set.[1][2]
The apology and further statements
Under the court’s decision, Turek was to send an apology to Hnutí Duha and publish it on a social network, where he is to leave it for at least seven days. He sent the apology through a data box on Friday, 2 October 2026.[1][2][4] On Tuesday, 6 October, he published a video on Facebook in which he added further statements to the apology. He said, for example, that Motoristé had thrown “all her buddies” out of the Ministry of the Environment and that the government had cut 700 million crowns of environmental education funding and subsidies from the movement. He also reproached the movement for wanting to “flood Czechia with wind power plants”.[1][2][3]
Reactions
Turek wrote to the Czech News Agency: “In the video on Facebook, I am recapitulating precisely the words that the court imposed by its judgment. I have therefore fulfilled my obligation in exactly the prescribed manner.” According to him, the video format gave the apology additional reach.[1][2]
Hnutí Duha said on Tuesday that Turek’s appearance amused it, especially the passage about the threat of cutting “non-existent giant subsidies”. In its view, the post cannot be regarded as a proper fulfilment of the imposed obligation, and the organisation continues to expect the apology to be published in accordance with the verdict. If that does not happen, it will proceed to enforcement through further legal steps.[1][2][4] The movement’s spokeswoman Eva Pernicová told the Czech News Agency that Turek had supplemented the apology with further attacks and that the court had imposed on him the duty to publish an apology, not to use the publication for attacking the movement again.[5]
Related articles: Městský soud v Praze, Seznam.cz
Chronology
- — MP Filip Turek declared his apology to Hnutí Duha, published under a court ruling, sufficient, while the organisation insists he has not fulfilled his obligation. ČTK / České noviny iROZHLAS
- — Member of Parliament Filip Turek apologised on Facebook on 4 October 2026 to the company Seznam.cz for his April statement about employees reading users' e-mails, an apology required by a ruling of the Municipal Court in Prague. Seznam Zprávy ČT24
- — The company Seznam.cz rejected MP Filip Turek's Facebook apology as fulfilment of the obligation imposed by the court, announcing it would wait for the ruling to become final and, if necessary, pursue enforcement. ČTK / České noviny Hospodářské noviny
Sources
- ČTK / České noviny
- iDNES.cz
- Novinky.cz
- Lidovky.cz
- Blesk.cz
- Seznam Zprávy — 4 October 2026
- ČT24 — 4 October 2026