Minister Babiš’s past irrelevant, says prime minister

Finance Minister Andrej Babiš’ alleged collaboration with former Czechoslovakia’s communist secret police, the StB, is irrelevant to his position in the government, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said. A court in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Thursday heard a lawsuit filed by Mr Babiš against the country’s National Memory Institute, demanding he be erased from a list of StB collaborators. The institute says the Slovak-born minister in the 1980s informed on some of his colleagues in the company he worked at that time, a claim denied by Mr Babiš. Prime Minister Sobotka said Czech voters were aware of the allegations ahead of October’s election in which Mr Babiš’ party won nearly 19 percent of the vote, becoming the Czech Republic’s second strongest party.

Author: Jan Richter