Controversial Czech EdMin adviser files criminal charges against Shadow Education Minister

News server iDNES.cz reports that Ladislav Bátora, an economic adviser to the Czech Education Minister, has filed criminal charges with the state prosecutor in České Budějovice alleging that opposition Czech MP Vlasta Bohdalová (Czech Social Democrats – ČSSD), the Shadow Education Minister, has committed defamation against him. His evidence is that the MP issued a press release in which she said Bátora was infamous for making racist statements and had called “for the voluntary transfer of Gypsies to the promised land”.

“Not only have I never said any such thing, I am also not infamous for it,” Bátora said. News server iDNES.cz reports that Bátora has also filed criminal charges alleging defamation against a blogger and against journalist Karel Hvížďal.

Bohdalová told news server iDnes.cz that she had based her claim on quotes in the press. When asked whether she is concerned about the criminal charges, she replied: “They would have to surrender me here.” As an MP she has immunity from prosecution.

Bátora is supposed to assist Czech Education Minister Josef Dobeš (Public Affairs – VV) with optimizing the economic operations of the ministry. Several politicians and nonprofit organizations have objected to his working at the ministry.

Bátora ran as a candidate in 2006 for the extremist National Party (Národní strana – NS), which three years later caused a scandal during the European Parliamentary (EP) elections with its publication “The Final Solution to the Gypsy Question”, which proposed deporting all Roma people from the country. Bátora did not run for the NS during the EP elections and is now involved with the eurosceptic group D.O.S.T.

The Czech Press Agency reports that Bátora participated in closed lectures several years ago about “Czech anti-Judaism” held by the ultra-nationalist Patriotic Front (Vlastenecká fronta – VF). The lectures were attended by many famous faces from the Czech extreme-right scene, including people whom experts and police say are neo-Nazis. Bátora has not denied attending the VF lectures and has stated that he even gave some of them himself.