Prague, March 17 (CTK) – Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has convoked a meeting of his Social Democratic Party’s (CSSD) leadership for Friday to deal with the case of the Capi hnizdo (Stork Nest) complex, he told CTK yesterday.
ANO must clearly explain the problems connected with Capi hnizdo, which is owned by Agrofert Holding of Finance Minister and ANO chairman Andrej Babis, and not trivialise them, Sobotka said.
He added that he would like the coalition government, comprised also of the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), to work stably, and that ANO must help the coalition achieve this.
Apart from the Capi hnizdo case, the CSSD leadership will deal with the bill on conflict of interest and its stance on the lower house’s extraordinary session to be held on March 23, where Babis is to explain the circumstances of the financing of the complex.
“I want our government to work stably and well and not to open space to cheap attacks by [opposition Civic Democrat, ODS, chairman Petr] Fiala and [TOP 09 head Miroslav] Kalousek. However, ANO must help the government coalition in this. It must not trivialise its current problems, but must explain them clearly and solve them,” Sobotka told CTK.
The coalition parties’ leaders were trying in vain to reach a joint stance on the extraordinary session on Wednesday evening. ANO is still against the approval of the session’s agenda, while the KDU-CSL would like to support it and the Social Democrats are hesitating.
Babis told CTK yesterday he he would not like the junior government KDU-CSL to agree with the agenda of the extraordinary lower house session.
Both the police and European bodies are investigating the affair on suspicion of an unauthorised drawing of an EU subsidy for the construction of the Capi hnizdo complex.
Until 2007, the Farma Capi hnizdo company belonged to Babis’s Agrofert Holding. Afterwards, its stake was transferred to bearer shares for a small firm to reach a 50-million-crown EU subsidy, which a firm of the huge Agrofert Holding could never get. It observed this condition for a few years, but later it again returned to Babis’s concern.
Some opposition politicians consider it a subsidy fraud, and therefore have initiated a lower house session to deal with it.
($1=24.450 crowns)
