European Commission: Czech Mafia Oligarch To Take Control Of Justice, Rule of Law, and Fundamental Rights?

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D. | September 29, 2014

Andrej Babis (c) EuropeanVoice

In one of the last editions of EuropeanVoice, there was a portrait of Andrej Babiš, the Czech Republic’s new political strongman. As one could read there, the man is a particularly disgusting example of a former Communist (and collaborator of the secret service StB) turned “democrat”. Having until 1989 worked as a well-paid management post at the State Enterprise trading with primary resources (and enjoyed a quantity of privileges ordinary Czechoslovak citizens could only dream of, such as the possibility to freely travel and live abroad), he was able to use the business know-how and contacts he had acquired in order to build up his own private business empire – notably by purchasing formerly State-owned enterprises far below their actual value. He is now a billionaire (Nr. 731 on the Forbes List in March 2014), and the owner of a powerful media group.

In 2011 he decided that, rather than influencing Czech policies from the outside, his business interest would best be served if he became himself a politician. He therefore founded a party called ANO (the abbreviation is for Akce nespokojených občanů, Action of dissatisfied citizens – but “ano” is also the Czech word for “yes”), which thanks to a well-oiled media campaign won 18.7% (47 seats) in the 2011 general elections. ANO is now part of the Czech government, in which Babiš serves as a vice-premier and minister of finance.

For those who are interested in getting an even juicier picture of Czech political culture, it is worthwhile to read the latest novel Mafie v Praze (The Mafia in Prague) by Czech satirist Michal Viewegh. In fact, this is not really a novel, but a collage of real facts, in which Viewegh just slightly changed the name of (some of) the protagonists – but not beyond recognisability. The mafia boss who has set up a private “security firm” that recruits former policemen and tasks them with spying on, or hunting down, political opponents is apparently intended as a portrait of Andrej Babiš…

Against this background, it is truly astonishing that Jean-Claude Juncker’s pick for the post of EU Commissioner for Justice is Věra Jourová, a politician who is a member of ANO and owes her political career entirely to Babiš. This means that in fact the policies relating to Justice and Fundamental Rights in the EU will, at least indirectly, be placed in Mr. Babiš’s hands, i.e. in the hands of a man whose past as a Communist cadre and collaborator of the secret services is notorious…

One fact that is known about Mrs. Jourová herself is that in 2006 she had to step down as a Minister for Regional Development (at that time she was member of CSSD, the Czech Republic’s socialist party) and spent one month in judicial custody on the grounds of allegations of corruption (ironically, the case involved the alleged misuse of EU funds…). She was later released, and the case against her was dropped.

Even though the presumption of innocence applies, Mr. Juncker’s choice to nominate Mrs. Jourová as Commissioner for Justice looks like nominating the dog as the guardian of the sausage. At the same time, one is also tempted to wonder what (except the desire to get some more seats at the EP) may have motivated ALDE, the EP group of “liberal and democratic” political parties, to have accepted ANO as one of their members. The “liberalism” that involves someone like Mr. Babiš, who has announced that “States should be run like private businesses” must be of a quite peculiar ilk.

There is still some time left for the European Parliament to prevent the absurdity of a Justice Commissioner with KGB-cum-mafia links. Mrs. Jourová’s appearance before the competent parliamentary committees is scheduled for Wednesday 1 October, 1.30 p.m. local time.

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