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Slovak court reopens question of whether Czech election favourite Babis was secret police informer bne IntelliNews
Slovakia's Constitutional Court
on October 12 ordered a lower court to re-examine claims that Andrej Babis, favourite to become prime minister in the upcoming Czech election, collaborated with the Czecho- slovak communist-era secret police.
The court's acceptance of a request made by Slovakia’s Institute of the Nation’s Memory spells double trouble for Slovak-born billionaire-turned-populist- politician Babis in the run-up to the October 20-21 vote. On October 9, Babis, leader of the ANO movement, confirmed police have charged Babis with fraud in the Capi hnizdo (Stork Nest) case cen- tred on a €2.3mn EU subsidy obtained a decade ago. Analysts will watch closely to see if the latest blow to Babis dents ANO's popularity in the opinion polls.
However, with the latest surveys showing only a slight reduction in the party's popularity since news broke of
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the Stork Nest charges, some observers are wondering whether the euroscep- tic, anti-immigrant Babis has Donald Trump-like Teflon qualities, as nothing seems to stick. That was also the case in the spring when he was fired from his post in the ruling coalition as finance
operated during the four-decade-long Communist-era former Czechoslovakia.
Babis refutes the allegation and Slo- vak courts have previously ruled that there was no proof of its veracity. The Constitutional Court verdict returns
“Police have charged babis with fraud in the capi hnizdo (stork nest) case ”
minister amid claims he had exploited a loophole to evade taxes, using bonds issued by his Agrofert corporation, the country’s largest private employer.
The Slovak Institute of the Nation’s Memory, which holds parts of 63-year- old Babis’ secret-police files, claims there is evidence that Babis was an informer working for the plainclothes secret police force, State Security (StB), which
that question to a regional court in Babis' city of birth, Bratislava.
The institute's claims centre on the 1980s when Babis was a member of the Czechoslovak ruling Communist party and a representative of a state foreign trade company. Responding via his spokeswoman after the verdict was released, Babis stated: “I never signed collaboration with the StB and never