Czech Green Party chair: Neo-fascist Bátora cannot be an adviser to the Education Minister
Czech Green Party chair Ondřej Liška says it is unacceptable that Ladislav Bátora remain in his post as adviser to the Czech Education Minister. Liška has affiliated himself to the statement released last week by the Czech Helsinki Committee and is demanding not only Bátora’s immediate departure, but the resignation of Czech Education Minister Josef Dobeš. Liška believes the current minister has failed as a guardian of the democratic basis of Czech education.
Commenting on the Czech Helsinki Committee’s statement, Liška said: “I fully support the approach taken by the Czech Helsinki Committee, which yesterday published further information about the political activity of Ladislav Bátora testifying to his anti-Semitic and xenophobic attitudes. Ladislav Bátora has never distanced himself from his collaborations with neo-fascist and ultra-nationalist movements such as the National Party or the Patriotic Front, but on the contrary has claimed he would change nothing about his previous behavior. Bátora, now an adviser to the Education Minister, participated in closed meetings of Czech anti-Semites together with deniers of the Holocaust of the Jewish and Roma people, and has even lectured for the Patriotic Front – and those facts are just the tip of the iceberg as far as Bátora’s links to that scene are concerned.”
“It is absolutely unsustainable for Bátora, a neo-fascist, to continue advising the Education Minister and for the minister to cover for him or to refuse to comment on his political engagement. It is shocking that Bátora was found for this position with the express support of Czech President Klaus. A democratic society must exclude people involved in such activities from acting as the closest official subordinate to a minister with even the slightest influence over the education system. We are demanding the resignation of Ladislav Bátora and Minister Dobeš, because as a guardian of the democratic basis of Czech education he has utterly failed,” Liška said.
