A politician who advocates stopping arms supplies to Ukraine may become the President of the Czech Republic
A court in Prague acquitted former Prime Minister and presidential candidate of the Czech Republic Andrej Babis.
This increases the chances of a politician who criticizes Kyiv’s support to win the presidential election, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Dollar billionaire Andrej Babis, who was Prime Minister of the Czech Republic in 2017-2021, was accused of involvement in financial fraud in one of his companies and illegally receiving subsidies from EU funds for the construction of the Stork's Nest resort hotel. The prosecution alleged that the company that owned the hotel was in fact connected to Babis' Agrofert holding. In 2008, the hotel owners received about two million euros from the EU budget for the project.
“Not guilty! I am very glad that we have an independent judiciary and the court has confirmed what I have argued from the very beginning. That I am innocent and have not done anything illegal,” Andrei Babish wrote on Twitter after the court decision.
Before this, at the trial, the ex-prime minister admitted that he used the scheme mentioned by the prosecution, but insisted that he did not break the law. Babis emphasized that his persecution was political in nature. The prosecutor demanded a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of 10 million Czech crowns (407 thousand euros). The defense of the former prime minister asked to fully acquit him, and this is exactly the decision the court made.
The court's acquittal improved Andrei Babis's position ahead of the Czech presidential elections, the first round of which will take place on January 13-14. The ex-premier's rivals are retired General Pyotr Pavel, who in 2015-2018 served as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, which is the second position in the Alliance after the Secretary General, as well as hard-line supporter towards Russia Danusha Nerudova. Neither candidate is expected to win outright in the first round, meaning the second round will take place on January 27-28.
Babis himself cannot be called a pro-Russian politician, but he relies on the electorate of the current Czech President Milos Zeman, who is largely pro-Russian. This influences the ex-prime minister’s rhetoric - he regularly criticizes the Czech government for helping Ukrainian refugees much more than the Czechs. Andrei Babis also claims that the Czech Republic has already provided enough weapons to Ukraine, and therefore it is time to stop such assistance.
At the same time, there is a moment in Andrei Babish’s biography that demonstrates that the politician’s entourage has connections with the Russian intelligence services. In 2017, the politician urgently needed to take his son out of the Czech Republic. And on the advice of his security service, Babish decided that the best place for this would be Crimea.
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, mass demonstrations regularly take place in the Czech Republic demanding an end to military support for Kyiv.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.