At Wednesday’s special meeting of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament, which was called by the parties of the outgoing government because of Babiš’s conflict of interests related to the ownership of the holding company Agrofert, the chairman of the ANO movement Andrej Babiš declared in plenary that someone allegedly wants to kill him again. According to him, the Czech media create an atmosphere like the media in Slovakia, and he recalled the assassination of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Regarding the topic of the meeting, he said that Agrofert has become the target of a political fight and the parties of the outgoing government are lying about it, reports TASR in Prague.
“How many times have they wanted to kill me. Last week, the police were here again, someone wants to kill me again. The media don’t even realize that they are creating the atmosphere created by the media in Slovakia. And we know how it ended with Fico. You all know what it’s about. Intimidation… It’s the result of selected media,” declared Babiš.
Refutation of allegations
He came to the speaker’s desk with a picnic basket full of documents, which he gradually placed on the desk. He showed the camera a thick book about Agrofert, which he commented with the words “Agrofert, my child built for 30 years”. In his speech, he listed various cases related to Agrofert or his person and commented on them. For example, he refuted the fact that he would create some folders for deputies, he also touched on the case of the poisoning of the Bečva river, the subsidy for the Eurasian Eagle’s Nest, and real estate in France.
He emphasized that he does not understand why the future opposition called the meeting, when it is said that he has a clear agreement with the president on how the nominees for the future coalition government will gradually visit him and how he will announce the solution to the conflict of interests. He immediately added that he had none.
Defense of Agrofert
According to him, Agrofert became the subject of a political struggle, and the ending Fial government did nothing but attack it. According to Babiš, the claim that if the holding does not receive subsidies, it will go bankrupt is a lie. He added that the share of subsidies in Agrofert’s sales is 0.7 percent. “In the last 20 years, the evil Agrofert has diverted 103 billion crowns to European budgets, of which 60 billion crowns in the Czech Republic, and employs up to 40,000 families,” declared the head of ANO.
After almost an hour and a half, he got to the case of allegedly bringing his son to Crimea. He called it the worst thing that happened in Czech journalism because, according to him, the journalists abused his son. “This was the biggest hyenism… it’s something so terrible, maybe my parents will understand me,” said Babiš. When he talked about his son, he broke down in tears and had to stop his speech for a moment. In the end, he also got to the case of his records in the volumes of State Security. “I never signed anything,” he repeated.
Planned support for Babiš
The vice-president of the ANO movement, Alena Schillerová, announced that only Babiš will speak from the parties of the emerging government, other MPs from the ANO, SPD and Motoristi parties do not plan to speak.
