Europe

Former Czech prime minister Andrej Babis acquitted of fraud charges involving EU funds

Ruling a boost for Babis just days before first round of the Czech presidential election

Andrej Babis is bidding to become president of the Czech Republic in an election starting on Friday. Photograph: Petr David Josek/AP

Raphael Minder in Prague
Mon Jan 9 2023 - 17:43

The Czech Republic’s billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis was acquitted of fraud charges on Monday, a ruling that bolsters his bid to become president ahead of a tight election this week.

Mr Babis, a divisive figure who served as prime minister until 2021, is being challenged by a retired Nato commander and an economist aiming to become her country’s first female head of state. If Mr Babis wins the election that starts on Friday, he is expected to clash with the centrist government he blames for an inflation-fuelled downturn.

Mr Babis was acquitted in a fraud case in relation to €2 million of EU funds received by one of his many businesses. He became one of the wealthiest Czechs before becoming premier as the founding leader of his liberal ANO party. He lost office after a tight and acrimonious parliamentary election in 2021.

Should Mr Babis win, “he could make the life of the government quite miserable”, said Petr Just, head of the political science department at Metropolitan University Prague. Whatever the outcome, Mr Just added, “we have leading candidates who could conceive the role of president in a very active and forceful manner”.

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Although the Czech constitution grants executive power to the government rather than the president, the outgoing and plain-speaking president Milos Zeman used his decade in office to wield significant and divisive influence, including over foreign policy as he embraced Russia and China as key allies. Mr Zeman (78), who successfully repelled several impeachment attempts, has endorsed Mr Babis.

The first round of voting takes place over two days – Friday and Saturday. If no one secures an absolute majority, the top two candidates will face a runoff vote two weeks later.

Recent polls give Mr Babis and his two main rivals – retired general Petr Pavel and economist Danuse Nerudova – between 20 and 30 per cent of the votes each.

Another six candidates split the remaining votes. Marek Hilser, a senator who is running for a second time, said that in a second round, “I would for sure vote for somebody who is not Andrej Babis, who is not an oligarch and who is the lesser evil.”

The president receives legal immunity during the five-year term. With Mr Babis facing other fraud investigations, “he wants to buy five years not to be in prison, which is not the right reason to want the presidency”, said Ms Nerudova in an interview.

Mr Babis also faces an uphill struggle because, as in France, the two-round election creates an opportunity for his main rivals to unite in vetoing him in the runoff.

Asked during a canvassing afternoon in Prague why he entered politics, Mr Pavel said he wanted to “restore integrity” to the presidency. “Zeman was stretching the constitution quite a lot,” he said. “Bringing us to the brink with pro-China and pro-Russia policies, I believe all of this deserves to be changed.”

Photographer Irena Vanisova was among Mr Pavel’s supporters who welcomed his Nato experience, especially in the context of the war in Ukraine. “I’m afraid of Russia and I want a president who understands war,” she said. Film actor Jan Kominek called Mr Pavel “a strong leader who can guarantee our freedom.”

Whoever wins, Czechs will have the first president who was not a mastermind in the country’s overhaul following its 1989 Velvet Revolution. But Mr Pavel has faced criticism for joining the Communist Party and training to become a spy before the Soviet collapse. Mr Pavel (61) insists that he never got to spy. Still, Ms Nerudova said that, were it not for the Velvet Revolution, “he would possibly have been a general of the Warsaw Pact”.

Mr Nerudova (44) said she wanted to join “a new wave” of younger women winning office, notably Zuzana Caputova, who became Slovakia’s first female president in 2019.

However, Ms Nerudova’s record has been tainted by cases of plagiarism and unlawful doctorate awards at Mendel University while she was rector. Describing the campaign as “very aggressive”, Ms Nerudova insisted she had no direct involvement in wrongdoings at her university.

In Slovakia, Ms Čaputova is now playing a frontline role after the government’s collapse last month. Although the coalition of Czech prime minister Petr Fiala has a parliamentary majority, Ms Nerudova warned that a prolonged economic downturn could also trigger political turmoil in Prague.

“There are 35 per cent of households in our country unable to pay the bills for gas and electricity and they are standing on the edge of radicalism,” said Ms Nerudova. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023

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