Andrej Babiš

Andrej Babiš (2017)

Andrej Babiš (born September 2, 1954 in Bratislava , pronunciation: Babisch ) is a Czech businessman and politician of Slovak origin. He has been Prime Minister of the Czech Republic since December 13, 2017 .

According to the news magazine Týden, Babiš is the second richest citizen in the country with 4 to 5 billion euros and the founder of the Agrofert holding company . With the political protest movement ANO 2011 , Babiš entered politics and in 2014 became Minister of Finance in the Bohuslav Sobotka cabinet . After his dismissal on May 24, 2017 on suspicion of tax fraud and influencing the media, ANO clearly won the election in October 2017 . After lengthy government negotiations, the House of Representatives expressed its confidence in the second Babiš cabinet on July 12, 2018.

Life

His father Štefan Babiš was active in Czechoslovak foreign trade and was a diplomat , which is why Babiš spent part of his childhood in Paris and Geneva . After graduating from high school in Geneva in 1974, Andrej Babiš studied at the Faculty of Commerce at the Bratislava University of Economics until 1978 and then worked for Chemapol Bratislava. In 1978 he became a candidate and in 1980 a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). In 1985 Babiš was sent to Morocco for the state-owned foreign trade company Petrimex , from where he returned to Prague after the Velvet Revolution in 1991 .

Babiš is married for the second time and has two children each from the first and second marriage.

Entrepreneur

AGROFERT as headquarters in the Chodov district of Prague

The Babiš-sponsored London Booster by Czech artist David Černý has been in front of the Agrofert headquarters in Prague since the 2012 Olympic Games

Shortly after his return from Morocco and the dissolution of the Federal Republic of Czechoslovakia , Petrimex founded the holding company Agrofert under Foreign Office Secretary Anton Rakický and Babiš with loans from the US Citibank , of which Babiš became director in 1993. According to the daily newspaper , Babiš claims that it was old friends from Swiss times who joined Agrofert in 1995 with a company called Ost Finanz und Investment AG (OFI) and that he was able to take over the company. Under his leadership, Agrofert quickly developed into one of the leading companies in the Czech agricultural , chemical and food industries and expanded massively abroad. In 2011 Agrofert owned over 230 subsidiaries and is now the fourth largest group in the Czech Republic.

Agrofert has been the sole owner of the German agrochemical company SKW Piesteritz since 2006 . At the beginning of 2013, Agrofert took over the large German bakery Lieken AG (with the brands Golden Toast and Lieken Urkorn ) from Barilla .

At the end of June 2013, a subsidiary of Babiš 'Agrofert, AGF Media as, took over the media company MAFRA from the Rheinische Post , which publishes the Czech daily newspapers Mladá fronta Dnes , Lidové noviny and the free newspaper Metro , as well as to internet portals, private TV stations and print shops is involved. The sale was approved in August and approved by the Czech Cartel Office shortly before the October 2013 election .

Forbes magazine listed Babiš in November 2015 as the “richest Slovakian”.

Politician

In November 2011, Babiš founded the ANO 2011 party (German “Ja” and at the same time the acronym for “Action dissatisfied citizens”, Czech Akce nespokojených občanů , the forerunner of the ANO party), which was second strongest in the 2013 parliamentary elections with 18.65% Force in the House of Representatives was. Babiš ran as the top candidate of his party in the capital Prague. The Social Democrats ( ČSSD ) under Bohuslav Sobotka agreed on a coalition government with ANO and the Christian Democrats ( KDU-ČSL ) agreed on a coalition government in which Babiš was finance minister and first deputy prime minister from January 29, 2014.

On May 2, 2017, Prime Minister Sobotka announced the resignation of his government due to allegations of tax fraud against Babiš. Since President Miloš Zeman indicated that he would only accept Sobotka's resignation and not that of the entire government, Sobotka Zeman finally only presented Babiš's dismissal. Ivan Pilný (ANO) was appointed as the new finance minister .

In the House of Representatives election on 20./21. In October 2017 , the ANO party won 78 of 200 seats in 2011 with 29.64% of the votes cast, making it by far the strongest political force in the country, even though top candidate Babiš was suspected of having stolen EU subsidies. The second largest party, the ODS , received only 11.32%. President Miloš Zeman entrusted Babiš with the formation of a government and on December 13th swore in the cabinet of Andrej Babiš , which was a minority government of the ANO party with not yet negotiated parliamentary support, as the other parties refused to form a coalition because of subsidy allegations, among other things .

On January 16, 2018, the government lost the mandatory vote of confidence, which, according to the constitution, must be made no later than 30 days after the appointment. The 78 ANO MPs expressed their confidence in Babiš, 117 MPs voted against. Thereupon Babiš submitted the resignation of his government. President Zeman accepted this and announced on the same day that he would give Babiš another chance to find a majority and that there would be no new elections. Babiš had previously called for his immunity to be lifted in order to dispel the corruption allegations against him. The parliament then lifted his impunity as a member of parliament.

After successful negotiations with the chairman of the ČSSD Jan Hamáček , the new coalition government was sworn in on June 27, 2018. The minority government relies on the votes of the Communists ( KSČM ) in the House of Representatives .

On June 26, 2019, Babiš survived a vote of no confidence in parliament, requested by five opposition parties on allegations of corruption (see below).

Work for the Czechoslovak State Security

The Slovak counterpart to the Gauck authority , the Ústav pamäti národa , accused Babiš of working for the Czechoslovak State Security StB under the code name "Bureš"; According to the documents made available so far, he is said to have exercised the function as an informal agent from November 1982 to 1985, knowingly (as a confidant from 1980). Babiš resolutely denied any cooperation (whether knowingly or not) with the State Security and sued the Ústav pamäti národa in 2013.

Although two competent institutes and authorities ( Ústav paměti národa , Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů ) declared that the documents for Babiš's tax and tax cooperation were to be classified as credible, the District Court of Bratislava I found in June 2014 that Babiš was in the tax office's employee database was registered unfairly, whereas the Ústav pamäti národa filed an appeal. Two of the following professional bodies confirmed this judgment: the District Court in Bratislava 2015 and the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic 2017. Only the next appeal brought a turning point: the Slovak Constitutional Court overturned the previous judgments in October 2017 and delegated the case to the District Court of Bratislava. On January 30, 2018, the Bratislava District Court, in agreement with the Constitutional Court, finally rejected Babiš's indictment against the Ústav pamäti národa and thus confirmed Babiš's entry in the lists of employees of the State Security StB as well-founded.

Corruption suspected

Case "stork's nest"

On September 6, 2017, 123 out of 134 MPs voted to withdraw Babiš's parliamentary immunity . This enabled the suspicion of subsidy fraud of around two million euros (50 million Czech crowns ) in the construction of the “Stork's Nest” (“Čapí hnízdo”) holiday resort to be prosecuted for a relatively short time. Through his re-election as a member of parliament in the election on 20./21. In October 2017 Babiš regained immunity. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) is also investigating this subsidy fraud . Babiš had lost a vote of confidence on January 16, 2018 and previously demanded that his immunity be withdrawn in order to dispel the corruption allegations against him.

According to media reports, Babiš's 35-year-old son Andrej Babiš jr. Claimed in November 2018 that his father's employees had taken him to the Crimea against his will . This is to prevent him from being questioned by the Czech police about the fraud allegations made against his father in connection with the "Stork's Nest" case. He accuses his father of having taken him out of the country against his will to obstruct investigations into alleged subsidy fraud.

Conflicts of interest in the allocation of EU funds

Between 2004 and 2013 Agrofert in the Czech Republic received around 160 million euros in funding from the European Union. In 2014 and 2015, when Andrej Babiš was Minister of Finance, the company received a total of 92 million euros. In particular, the 50% increase in his first year in office, but also the associated conflict of interests are under discussion. A police prosecution of Andrej Babiš and his family (the family has not been prosecuted since 2019) as well as investigations by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) drew a subsidy amount of 50 million kroner (according to other sources, 42 million kroner, which may have been obtained by fraud in 2008) ), d. H. less than 2 million euros for a holiday resort, which came from EU funds for small businesses. The company was spun off for this purpose, but is now owned by the group again.

At the end of May 2019, a preliminary audit report by the EU Commission revealed that up to 17.4 million euros could be reclaimed from the European social, cohesion and regional funds that had been paid to Agrofert Holding companies. Among other things, it says "The impartial and objective exercise of government offices by Mr. Babiš was impaired". Also, no more agricultural subsidies have been paid to the group since December 2018. Both are justified by the fact that the founder, Andrej Babiš, as Minister of Finance and later as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, has an influence on the allocation of these funds. Even after he transferred his shares in the company to private trust funds in 2017 , conflicts of interest cannot be ruled out, as Babiš appointed the managers of the two funds himself (his wife is only the so-called protector) and can remove them at any time. Contrary to the property guarantee of the Czech constitution , various complaints have been made that Babiš will again become the owner of Agrofert after he later left politics . At the beginning of June 2019, the chief public prosecutor resumed the criminal investigation against Babiš without sufficient justification, after a lower instance of the public prosecutor's office had since been discontinued due to lack of evidence.

On June 4, 2019, up to 120,000 demonstrators in Wenceslas Square called for Babiš's resignation. A few weeks later, on June 23, 2019, many more people protested against Babiš and his government. At the largest demonstration in Prague for 30 years, according to the organizers, at least 250,000 participants demanded independent investigations against Babiš and his immediate resignation again. These demonstrations did not lead to any tangible result on the Czech political scene.

literature

• Jakub Patočka: »Entrepreneur Populism«: The rise of Andrej Babiš in the Czech Republic . In: Ernst Hillebrand (ed.): Right-wing populism in Europe: Danger for democracy? Dietz , Bonn 2015, ISBN 978-3-8012-0467-9 , p. 88 ff.

TV reports

• ZDF May 19, 2019: Cheating made easy - How EU funds trickle away in Eastern Europe (28 min) - Film by Britta Hilpert and Eva Schiller. How Andrej Babis, Viktor Orbán and Liviu Dragnea use EU funds for themselves, on the edge or beyond legality

Web links

Commons : Andrej Babiš  - collection of images

• Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on the sides of the Czech government
• Biography (Czech) on the ANO 2011 website
• Portrait , Die Zeit on August 4th, 2016

Individual evidence

1. ↑ tyden.cz of October 16, 2013 (accessed December 3, 2013)
2. ^ Change of finance minister. Babiš dismissed, Pilný appointed on Radio Praha , May 24, 2017
3. ↑ E15.cz: Miliardář Babiš koupil Ringier za čtyři miliardy korun financninoviny.cz June 24, 2013 (read on December 1, 2013)
4. ↑ kurier.at October 20, 2013: In the Czech Republic, too, a billionaire is stirring up politics
5. ↑ young world from October 11, 2013 / Reinhard Lauterbach: An oligarch makes politics (Abroad, page 7)
6. ↑ "I am not God", WIWO from June 18, 2013
7. ↑ Commercial register on justice.cz, business identification number (IČ) 48117072, AGROFERT, spol. s ro
8. ^ The Berlusconi of Prague, taz.de of October 25, 2013
9. ↑ tagesanzeiger.ch of October 31, 2013 / Michael Soukup: The high-flyer with the Swiss mailbox company , accessed on December 3, 2013
10. ↑ New Lieken owner wants to increase production in Rheinische Post from May 25, 2013
11. ↑ Is the Czech Republic facing Berlusconization? EJO - European Journalism Observatory, September 5, 2013
12. ↑ Rheinische Post Mediengruppe sells activities in the Czech Republic , press release of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe from June 26, 2013
13. ↑ Agrofert has officially taken over the Mafra publishing house
14. ^ Andrej Babis richest Slovak again - Forbes. In: ceskenoviny.cz, November 5, 2015.
15. ^ Frankfurter Rundschau: Czech Prime Minister Sobotka announces his resignation. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
16. ↑ Successor found. Controversial finance minister agrees to resign on Radio Praha, May 18, 2017
17. ↑ Volby do Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu České republiky konané ve dnech 20.10. - 21.10.2017 , information from the Czech Statistical Office ČSÚ, online at: volby.cz/pls/
18. ↑ ^{a b c} Česká televize: ŽIVĚ: Sněmovna Babišově vládě nedala důvěru, pro hlasovalo pouze ANO . In: ČT24 . ( ceskatelevize.cz [accessed on January 16, 2018]).
19. ↑ FAZ.net: Czech Prime Minister asks a question of confidence
20. ↑ Prime Minister Babis loses a vote of confidence . Spiegel Online, January 16, 2018
21. ^ The Czech government resigns . Spiegel Online, January 24, 2018
22. Jump up ↑ https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2019-06/tschechien-andrej-babis-premier-misstübersetzungen-opposition
23. ↑ KS ZNB - Správa ŠtB Bratislava (Séria: II) , report by StB Bratislava, entry 25085, online at: upn.gov.sk / ...
24. ↑ Patrik Dubovský: Hovorí zväzok ŠtB na A. Babiša o vedomej spolupráci? , in: Sme.sk - Komentare, October 24, 2017, online at: komentare.sme.sk / ...
25. ↑ Milan Jaroš: Babišův spis oživl na sociálních sítích. Nikdy jsem s StB nespolupracoval, opakuje lídr ANO , in: Hospodářské noviny 13 September 2013, online at: domaci.ihned.cz / ...
26. ↑ Babiš odmítá spolupráci s StB: "Soud je zmanipulovaný" , report of the Czech television ceskatelevize.cz from November 17, 2013, online at: ceskatelevize.cz/ct24 / ...
27. ↑ Nové důkazy podporují tezi o spolupráci Babiše s StB , report on aktuellne.cz from October 22, 2013, online at zpravy.aktualne.cz / ...
28. ↑ Babiš vyhrál 'agentský soud'. Ústav paměti národa se odvolá , Echo24.cz from June 26, 2014, online at: echo24.cz / ...
29. ↑ Babiš agentem StB nebyl, potvrdil slovenský odvolací soud , Aktuálně.cz of June 30, 2015, online at: zpravy.aktualne.cz / ...
30. ↑ Slovenský nejvyšší soud se zastal Babiše ohledně evidence u StB , Czech TV ČT24 February 6, 2017, online at: ceskatelevize.cz/ct24 / ...
31. ↑ Andrej Babiš zůstává ve svazcích StB. Proti rozhodnutí slovenského Ústavního soudu se chce bránit, zažaluje ministerstvo vnitra , Hospodářské noviny from October 12, 2017, online at: zahranicni.ihned.cz / ...
32. ↑ Babiš bude dál veden jako agent StB, slovenský soud jeho žalobu zamítl. Nic jsem nepodepsal, tvrdí , Aktuálně.cz from February 13, 2018, online at: aktuellne.cz / ...
33. ↑ Andrej Babis loses immunity
34. ^ Prague newspaper: Laws against Babiš
35. ↑ - ( Memento of January 12, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) OLAF Final Report (in Czech)
36. ^ Radio Prague: Prime Minister Babiš on the Crimean Affair: I will not resign, never!
37. ↑ zeit.de/ Protests against Prime Minister Babiš over allegations of fraud , in: Zeit online , November 16, 2018.
38. ↑ http://www.czech.cz/de/Nouvelles/EU-Juristen-Premier-Babis-im-Interessenkonflikt Radio Prague on December 3, 2018
39. ↑ One flew over the stork's nest. The many scandals in the Czech Republic documented how corrupt politicians are. In: Die Zeit , No. 33/2016
40. ↑ EU Commission confirms that the Czech premier has conflicts of interest
41. ↑ Handelsblatt: Prime Minister Babis comes under pressure because of EU agricultural subsidies
42. ↑ EU Commission confirms that the Czech premier has conflicts of interest
43. ↑ Tagesspiegel: Czech public prosecutor is examining allegations against Prime Minister Babis
44. ↑ Prager Zeitung: Beginning of Götterdämmerung?
45. ↑ Tens of thousands on Wenceslas Square in Prague demand the resignation of Prime Minister Babis
46. ↑ Tens of thousands demonstrate in Prague against Prime Minister Babis , Spiegel Online, June 23, 2019