Photo: CTK
Prague - Czech Labour and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL) is "ready to consider offering to resign" over a Christmas party held at the ministry at the time of the tragic shooting at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. He said this today on the Czech Television (CT) discussion programme Questions by Václav Moravec. Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) said on the programme Partie Terezie Tománková on CNN Prima News that he is not preparing Jureček's dismissal yet. He said the minister had apologised, but he still had to explain the situation better.
Jurečka repeated his apology in the Czech Television. He added that he apologised for his incorrect assessment of the situation and for the subsequent communication. The ministry's party drew considerable criticism. It took place at a time when the tragic events in which an armed assailant killed fourteen people and injured 25 others were known. Jurečka's apology also drew critical reactions because it came too late and he stated that he would have disbanded the party earlier if he had already known about the tragic consequences. However, members of the government had the information for several hours.
"I apologize again because it was a mistake on my part to evaluate the issue of ending the Christmas meeting early and the issue of communication," the minister said. He added that he received the text message from the Government Office after 17:00, but did not read it until 18:26. "It was a mistake that I did not evaluate it at that time so that I would have ended the whole meeting," he said on CT. He said the party ended when he left for the cabinet meeting, which started at 21:00.
However, the news server iDnes.cz has reported, based on testimony from party attendees, that the minister returned to the party after the extraordinary cabinet meeting at which the shooting was addressed. At that time, according to the minister's statement today, there were around 30 people there, close associates. Jurecka stayed there with them. He added that he regretted the earlier miscommunication, but he never lied in his answers to journalists' questions.
"I am sorry that this situation has arisen," Fiala said. In his view, "it should have been evaluated differently". The prime minister said that the minister must now explain everything. However, he made a mistake for which he apologised, which is essential for him.
"Yesterday (Saturday), when I spoke to the Prime Minister about this, I said I was ready to consider offering my resignation if he would assess it this way," Jurečka said. He will also address the situation at the party's national committee. According to SeznamZprávy.cz, the KDU-ČSL board will discuss the situation on Tuesday. However, people in Jurečka's entourage do not share the minister's opinion that he should leave his post. The minister added that he had previously considered resigning because of a protest by Charter 77 signatory and founder of the Libri Prohibiti library of samizdat and exile literature Jiří Gruntorád over his low dissident pension.
The shooter killed 13 people in the FF UK building on Palach Square on 21 December last year and a 14th victim died later in hospital. Another 25 people were injured, some of them very seriously. Police say the shooting at the school was carried out by a 24-year-old faculty student from central Bohemia, whom police have also linked, based on ballistics, to the case of the December 15 murder of a man and his two-month-old daughter in the Klánovice forest on the outskirts of Prague.
CTK/GN.CZ_JaV_07
https://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/jurecka-je-pripraven-zvazit-kvuli-vecirku-rezignaci/2462439
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