Czech Prime Minister candidate indicted ahead of election

Czech Prime Minister candidate accused of misusing EU grants worth nearly 2.3 million euros.

Czech police have officially filed a complaint against Andrej Babis, a candidate for Prime Minister in the upcoming parliamentary election, on charges of defrauding European Union (EU) subsidies.

This information was confirmed by Mr. Andrej Babis himself on October 9 and he said he had filed a complaint.

Candidate Babis is accused of trying to obtain EU subsidies worth nearly 2.3 million euros for the construction of a farm complex, conference center and resort called Stork's Nest managed by his Agrofert group, instead of the money that should have been intended for projects of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Mr. Andrej Babis was charged by police with welfare fraud.

The former Czech Finance Minister denied the allegations, and repeatedly asserted that this was a purely politically motivated plan by his opponents to discredit him ahead of the House of Representatives elections on October 20-21.

In early September, the Czech Chamber of Deputies voted to dismiss Babis as a member of parliament, clearing the way for the prosecution of the Czech billionaire in connection with the Stork's Nest case. If convicted in court, he would face a prison sentence under Czech law.

However, it is unlikely that such a trial will be held and a verdict will come at a time when the House of Commons election is less than two weeks away.

So, with a high chance of winning the election, the police will still have to ask the new House of Representatives to dismiss Mr Babis again if they want to continue prosecuting him.

Mr. Babis is currently the Chairman of the ANO Movement, one of three parties in the current ruling coalition.

ANO is leading in opinion polls and is expected to win the general election later this month, but it is expected to fall short of the number of seats needed to form a minority government on its own.

Most other parties expected to have seats in the lower house in the upcoming election have said they will not form a coalition with ANO if Mr Babis is prosecuted.

In addition to Mr. Babis, the Vice President of the ANO Movement, Mr. Jaroslav Faltynek, was also officially ordered by the police to be prosecuted with similar charges due to his involvement in the above Stork Nest case./.

According to VOV