ANO leader Andrej Babis yesterday refused to answer questions from MPs about how he will resolve a future conflict of interest regarding his Agrofert holding before his expected appointment as prime minister, during his speech at an urgent session of the lower house.
In his speech, he spent about an hour and a half describing his business and political activities.
He said he considered the meeting, initiated by members of the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), Civic Democrats (ODS), Mayors and Independents (STAN), TOP 09 and the Pirates, to be unnecessary given that he has agreed with President Petr Pavel on how and when he will disclose his plans. He accused political opponents and the media of spreading lies, and claimed that there was a continued attack against him from the “post-revolution cartel” which has been going on for 14 years.
His speech was interrupted several times by Pirates holding banners and wearing T-shirts calling for the sale of Agrofert.
“I don’t understand why you have called this meeting when the president and I have a clear agreement on how the nominees for the next coalition government will visit him and how I will declare this conflict of interest, which of course I do not have,” said Babis. “I certainly won’t answer any questions, I will see you next time.”
Referring to the Constitutional Court, Babis described the tightening of the law on conflict of interest, which led to Agrofert being transferred to trust funds, as an effort to liquidate a political competitor. According to the ANO chairman, the outgoing ruling coalition abused the “lex Babis” law to punish those who cooperated with Agrofert. He also said that no conflict of interest could arise in the case of entitlement subsidies because they were decided at the level of the European Union.
According to the initiators of the meeting, Babis had the opportunity to explain publicly before entering government how he intends to resolve the conflict of interest over his ownership of Agrofert. President Pavel has also asked Babis to explain his actions to the public, and said he will not appoint Babis as prime minister without this. On Wednesday, the president said he was ready to appoint Babis within a week after the resolution of the conflict of interest was made public.
Babis said he has requested his extradition three times for prosecution in the Capi hnizdo (Stork’s Nest) case, thus complying with his movement’s code of conduct. He did not say whether he would ask for his parliamentary immunity to be lifted again, only that he had previously thought that all Czech courts were impartial. “Today I no longer think so,” he said.
He denied that he had to apologise for false claims based on court rulings. “Those were not lies,” he said.
Babis described the Agriculture Ministry’s decision to recover CZK 5.1 billion from Agrofert, which the group’s companies had earned in subsidies while Babis was in government, as political. According to Babis, Agrofert does not owe the state anything, but on the contrary, it helps the country.
Babis mentioned, for example, how Agrofert saved some other companies from bankruptcy in the 1990s, how much money it pays in taxes and levies, and how it helped the Ukrainians after the Russian military invasion.
The meeting was adjourned after three hours. Not all speakers who had signed up for the meeting were able to speak during the time allotted.
MPs did not have a chance to approve the agenda, nor to decide whether to extend their session into the night. No date has yet been set for further discussions. The incoming coalition of ANO, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists said that MPs would not return to this session before the end of the parliamentary term.
Today, Petr Dlouhy, general director of the State Agricultural Intervention Fund (SZIF) said the fund is prepared to stop processing subsidy applications for companies from the Agrofert holding if Babis becomes prime minister without resolving his conflict of interest.
According to Dlouhy, the suspension would last until SZIF is sure that the paying of subsidies does not contravene the law.
“As a precautionary measure, we would suspend the administration of the applications in question until we have some greater assurance that we would not be providing subsidies to someone who could theoretically be in a conflict of interest,” Dlouhy said. “We are not suspending anything yet, but we are monitoring the situation, of course, and we just want to proceed with caution so that no party has any problems with it in the future.”
