Slovakia’s nominee for envi-chief does not believe in climate change

The roster of EU environment ministers could soon include Rudolf Huliak, a man nominated by the Slovak National Party who believes the elite invented climate change to take away people’s cars.

In previous comments, Huliak has criticised “Brussels eco-terrorists” and called for environmental activists to be hanged.

“This nomination is absurd and dangerous,” commented Slovak MEP Michal Wiezik (Progressive Slovakia, Renew).

Huliak, at the helm of the Environment Ministry, would likely have Slovakia face new infringement cases and additional sanctions in existing ones, Wiezik added.

An online petition against Huliak’s nomination has already gathered almost 40,000 signatures, while the ministerial hopeful himself has started a counter-petition in his support, which lags behind with 10,000 signatures.

Huliak has also previously said he would personally visit Russia and “ask for forgiveness” if he were to govern Slovakia, challenging Fico’s promise that Slovakia’s foreign policy would not change after the election.

Huliak is a frequent guest in Slovakia’s disinformation media scene and his social media presence includes attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, which resulted in him being interrogated by the National Crime Agency on Monday.

Another mainstay of the alternative media, Martina Šimkovičková, was nominated by the nationalists for the culture minister’s post, which would put her in charge of media legislation, including Slovakia’s position on the proposed European Media Freedom Act.

Šimkovičová is a former news anchor who was fired from Slovakia’s largest TV station, TV Markíza, for making racist claims against migrants during the 2015 crisis. She now works for the internet-based TV Slovan, which is considered a conspiratorial website by the monitoring project Konšpirátori.sk.

Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová has received the nominations and said she is considering them. There is precedent for a Slovak president refusing to accept a ministerial nomination, but constitutional lawyers say the basis for this power is unclear.

In the past, Čaputová said she would take issue with nominating a person charged with a crime for the post of interior minister but said that nominating incompetent people was “the future prime minister’s business”.

(Barbara Zmušková | Euractiv.sk)