The environmental organisation Greenpeace ČR on the morning of 30 September 2026 covered, near Prague's Kačerov, an election billboard of the ANO movement featuring Jan Hušbauer, its candidate for mayor of Prague. In its place it put up a banner showing Foreign Minister and Motorists chairman Petr Macinka and deputy Filip Turek controlling Prime Minister Andrej Babiš like a puppet, with the caption “The Motorists harm nature, don't be their puppet”. [1][3]
Reason for the action
Greenpeace justified the action by saying it wanted to send Babiš a message to ensure expert and competent management of the Ministry of the Environment (MŽP), which, according to the organisation, is losing funds needed for effective nature protection under the leadership of the Motorists. Babiš has repeatedly said that he will not remove the Motorists from the head of the ministry. [1]
Miriam Macurová, head of the climate campaign at Greenpeace ČR, said that Babiš had entrusted the MŽP to a party that, according to the organisation, made no secret of the fact that it does not care about environmental protection, and that the ministry should be led by people with professional expertise. According to Greenpeace, instead of protecting nature the Motorists are abolishing separate climate protection sections, dismissing experts, filling their posts with people with questionable qualifications or conflicts of interest, or cutting the ministry's budget. [2][3]
Reactions of those involved
Babiš, through Martin Vodička, director of the communication department of the Government Office, said that flooding his e-mail inbox with thousands of messages, covering a paid-for billboard with an insulting poster and sending aggressive text messages is not, in his view, a suitable start to communication. Greenpeace rejected this statement and said that it had tried to communicate with the prime minister before citizens flooded his inbox with messages, and that, according to Jaroslav Charvát Bican, head of the energy campaign at Greenpeace ČR, the ministry has avoided answering its questions since the Motorists took over the MŽP. [1][2]
Motorists chairman and Foreign Minister Petr Macinka, through party spokesman Lukáš Koutník, said that the harmful influence of Greenpeace, which he called a “group of religious fanatics”, on the MŽP ended with the arrival of the Motorists, and described the organisation as “green jihadists” who respect neither laws nor rules. [1][2]
Jan Hušbauer, whose billboard was covered, said that Greenpeace had targeted not the government but his billboard, and warned of the influence of the movement's “political offshoot” in Prague, linked to the Greens and Praha Sobě, while criticising the action as vandalism. [1][2]
Related articles: ANO, Greenpeace ČR
Chronology
- — Greenpeace activists in Prague covered an ANO billboard with a message aimed at the Motorists party. ČTK / České noviny Pražský deník
Sources
- ČTK / České noviny — 30 September 2026
- Pražský deník — 30 September 2026
- Seznam Zprávy — 30 September 2026