Minister of Education Vladimír Balaš (STAN) met with the Chancellor of the University of Economics (VŠE) Petr Dvořák to resolve the situation surrounding the dean of the Faculty of Economics, Miroslav Ševčík.

The Minister responded to the request of VŠE graduates who wrote a letter to the Minister of Education. They asked him to entrust the VŠE Administrative Council – appointed and dismissed by ministers – to examine the long-term behavior of Dean Ševčík. They were annoyed that school management had not intervened more significantly in the behavior of the former Trikolora economist.

The meeting with the chancellor was attended by high-ranking ministry officials. In addition to the Minister, Deputy Jaroslav Miller and Senior Director of the Department of Higher Education Radka Wildová.

“The solution to this situation lies primarily in implementing the internal mechanisms of the University of Economics,” Deputy Miller wrote to Seznam Zprávám after the meeting.

According to him, one of the results of the discussion was an agreement on the need to amend the law on the Law on Higher Education.

Rector Dvořák added that solving the Ševčík case was in the hands of the school authorities. “The minister visited me and informed me of his opinion on the behavior of the dean, and I, in turn, informed him of my position. The minister has no direct authority to interfere in this matter, of course it is up to me and other school authorities,” wrote the Chancellor Dvořák to Seznam Zprávám.

In a January letter to ministers, graduates read the dean’s insults to Czech constitutional officials, comments about Russia’s war in Ukraine or the election campaign for the Trikolor political group, when he also called for circling his person when he became a candidate. for Tricolor in parliamentary elections in 2021.

Last week, the minister responded to a letter from a former VŠE student by assuring he would discuss the situation with the university leadership. “I am aware of the situation regarding Miroslav Ševčík, dean of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Economics, and I assure you that it has not been neglected. Therefore, I am planning a personal meeting with Petr Dvořák, rector of the University of Economics, where we will discuss the next course of action in this matter ,” Balaš said in a letter available to the editor.

Last fall, Dean Miroslav Ševčík, as the newly appointed dean of the Faculty of Economics, appeared at the anti-government demonstrations alongside several figures associated with the domestic disinformation scene – for example Ladislav Vrabel – as supporters of the Czech Republic’s initiative in the first place.

The Dean continues to work on disinformation. A few days ago giving interviews to President Václav Klaus Petar Hájko’s former spokesman, who was described by Interior Ministry experts on the fight against disinformation as a “mouthpiece of the Kremlin”.

Ševčík stated early in the interview that he was speaking for himself and not from a dean’s position, however, in the interview he made clear the preferences of his electorate and considered the electorate indiscriminately. He admits that Andrej Babiš is a better candidate for him than Petr Pavel. “He is certainly better than being a servant of NATO and warmongers, Mr. General,” said Ševčík.

In the interview, he explained that he would choose Babiš. “I would not vote for lesser or greater crimes, I would vote for people who in my opinion would not serve too many foreign powers, would not cooperate with foreign powers, would not be at the service of foreign intelligence services, multinational corporations and would be better off thinking about the interests of the Czech Republic as a citizen, a Czech household. Despite all the hatred that is with him, I think he has achieved something,” said Ševčík.

The dean questioned Pavel’s activities in NATO, where the future president serves as chairman of the military committee. At the same time, the Czech Army ranks this highest military body of NATO among the main agencies of the North Atlantic Alliance.

“Generalisimo claims that he is ranked second in NATO, but that is also not true. Because the generalissimo is just the head of one of the advisory bodies, and he stands on the advisory body of the military committee, which is something like nineteenth to twenty-fifth in NATO,” Ševčík told Hájk.

He divided presidential voters into two camps. “The people with oily heads who are willing to listen to what the mainstream media is telling them, are largely controlled by the same economic groups that control most of the world’s assets. That means they are American funds Vanguard, State Street, and Black Rock. And then there is a group of normal people, who use Baťian, common sense, and want to elect someone who will not be held accountable to these foreign powers and collaborations,” said the dean.

VŠE Chancellor Petr Dvořák, as in the past, is not planning any major action against the dean. “I consider some of the dean’s statements in the interview for the Protiproud website to be highly inappropriate,” he wrote to Seznam Zprávám.

Petr Hájek is a former spokesman for President Václav Klaus and is a pro-Russian operator and disinformation server Protiproud, whose activity was blocked last year after the outbreak of Russia’s war in Ukraine by the association CZ.NIC which manages the “.cz” domain. Because Hájkův Protiproud and other similar sites question Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Last February, after the outbreak of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Center Against Hybrid Threats at the Ministry of Interior wrote of Hájek: “Former spokesman for President Klaus P. Hájek loved spreading conspiracy theories about a globalist conspiracy. Now, unsurprisingly, he’s found excuses to sustain the offensive. Russia in Ukraine, and do not hesitate to celebrate as a scalpel that cuts into ulcers to clean festering wounds.”

The Dean of the Ševčík Faculty of Economics mentioned that presidential candidate Danuše Nerudová called Andrej Babiš evil after the first round of elections. Ševčík later came up with a narrative similar to that of the head of ANO, threatening war on a billboard in the campaign. The VŠE pedagogue expressed concern that if Pavel was elected to the Castle, there would be a risk of dragging the Czech Republic into the war.

“The far greater crime that could be happening is that we would have an elected president who would become, albeit a retired general… that he could drag us not only materially but also territorially into World War III. I am fundamentally against it, because I have grandchildren, but I don’t want them to experience this,” Ševčík said in an interview where he also mentioned several conspiracies about conspiracies of multinational companies and investment funds.