In Czechia, Andrej Babiš, a pro-Russian politician and former prime minister of the Czech Republic, has managed to rewrite his biography, erasing a shameful episode. His ANO party is a member of the newly formed far-right group Patriots for Europe in the European Parliament.
Many scandals have accompanied Babiš’s political career, including allegations that his company Agrofert illegally received European subventions.
However, the accusation of collaboration with the secret service of socialist Czechoslovakia was particularly painful for the politician. Babiš has repeatedly tried to refute these accusations in court.
However, the current Slovakian government has assisted him in resolving the issue. The Slovak Interior Ministry has entered into a settlement agreement with Babiš, which states that, despite the fact that the former Czech prime minister was on the lists of the National Security Agency (StB, the equivalent of the Soviet KGB in socialist Czechoslovakia), this was allegedly done illegally and without his consent, the AP agency reported.
This decision at least gives Andrej Babiš the right to bring to justice those who call him a “StB agent.”
The former Czech prime minister was born in Bratislava into a family of high-ranking officials. His father was a trade diplomat and worked, among other things, as a trade attaché in France and at the Geneva-based Czechoslovakian mission to the United Nations.
It is not surprising that Babiš, after graduating from the University of Economics in Bratislava, began working in foreign trade, taking a position at Chemapol, a company that exported and imported chemical products and raw materials.
This company was close to the government because its activities were vital to the country, and its employees were under strict surveillance by the secret services.
Already in the post-socialist period, the Slovak Institute of National Remembrance found Babiš on the list of StB agents.
According to the Institute, Babiš was included in the StB list back in 1980, and in 1982 he signed a cooperation agreement with the “authorities” and received the codename Bureš.
Published data indicates that Agent Bureš collaborated with the communist secret service until at least 1985, when they dispatched him on a business trip to Morocco. During this period, he convened at least 17 meetings with his supervisors, providing them with essential information, particularly reports on communication with foreigners.
Andrej Babiš had not denied such cooperation before. In 2011, he claimed that he was protecting his country’s economic interests in this way. However, later, when he entered politics, he retracted his words and began to call the accusations of cooperation with the StB part of the political attacks against him.
To defend himself against the accusations, he even filed a lawsuit against the Slovak Institute of National Remembrance, but it was unsuccessful, The Slovak Spectator wrote.
Despite the fact that both the Bratislava District Court and even the Supreme Court sided with Babiš at one time, the latter “did not find it proven that the plaintiff deliberately cooperated with the State Security and was its agent.” The Slovak Constitutional Court overturned these decisions.
Despite this, Babiš has not stopped trying to sue Slovakia, including by threatening to sue the European Court of Human Rights. He also sued journalists, accusing them of causing reputational damage.
This historical page irritates the politician, but he could not do anything about it. But now everything has changed.
Andrej Babiš has agreed not to demand financial compensation and will withdraw all pending lawsuits, according to the Slovak Interior Ministry’s statement.
This settlement agreement received final approval from the IV Municipal Court of Bratislava on October 11, but it became public in late October.
It was the third time that Babiš has tried to sue the Slovak government, accusing it of causing damage to his “business reputation” and demanding multimillion-dollar compensation.
Moreover, Babiš managed to win two of the cases in the first instance but lost on appeal. The third lawsuit is still pending.
Slovakia’s Interior Ministry cites two independent external legal analyses that allegedly highly assess the risk of a court loss. This, in turn, would have given Babiš the opportunity to file claims for damages.
Thus, the settlement agreement allegedly saves Slovakia from significant budgetary losses.
However, given that the results of the aforementioned assessments are still unknown, Slovaks do not generally support this agreement.
Anti-communist sentiments are still quite widespread in the Czech Republic. So it is not surprising that the information about the cooperation with the StB made Babiš’s candidacy unacceptable to many Czechs.
However, the settlement agreement with the Slovak government is unlikely to significantly alter these scenarios. After all, those voters for whom this issue is a matter of principle are unlikely to change their minds about Babiš.
And for the former Czech prime minister’s core electorate, the fact that he collaborated with the communist secret service does not seem to matter.
Indeed, the agreement enhances Andrej Babiš’s capacity to intimidate journalists who may bring up the contentious history of the political leader through lawsuits.
However, another telling point is that the Russian-friendly Slovak government risks instigating conflict within its own country to enhance the likelihood of a Moscow-friendly politician succeeding in the neighboring Czech Republic.
