The next Slovak Minister of the Environment will not be a climate change denier, said on Thursday President of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Čaputová. Rudolf Huliak was nominated for the position of Minister of the Environment in Robert Fico's government, who was elected on the ballot of the populist Slovak National Party, but is not a member of the party. Huliak has long been a climate change denier and has shared outrageous messages about climate activists, NGOs and the LGBTQ+ community on social media. “A candidate who has long rejected the scientific consensus on climate change and [believes] that there is no real climate crisis cannot lead and represent a department whose primary mission, by law, is to protect nature and the Earth’s climate system,” Čaputová wrote in a statement to POLITICO. She asked Fico to nominate a new candidate. (KETRIN JOCHEČOVA)