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Billionaire Czech Premier Hits Back at EU Scrutiny

Billionaire Czech Premier Hits Back at EU Scrutiny

(Bloomberg) -- Czech billionaire prime minister criticized the European Union for an audit that found him in a conflict of interest, calling the draft an attempt to destabilize the nation he runs.

Under increased pressure, Premier Andrej Babis has shifted his rhetoric from having a pro-European attitude to a sharp criticism of the bloc that is scrutinizing his ties to business conglomerate Agrofert. He founded it more than two decades ago and put in trusts before taking office.

Billionaire Czech Premier Hits Back at EU Scrutiny

He rebuffed the audit’s draft conclusion that says he still maintains control over the company that gets EU subsidies while he is part of the bloc’s decision making on budgets. The findings can be modified based on a response from national authorities. Babis said he wants to complain to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker about the probe.

“I will certainly ask Mr. Juncker how it’s possible that he has such incompetent auditors,” Babis told reporters on Wednesday.

Speaking to lawmakers in Prague a day earlier, he vowed not to return any EU subsidies paid to Agrofert. He also invoked George Soros, who has financially backed Transparency International, for its role in the probe.

“It really is a dubious, flawed and inaccurate report that has signs of an attack,” Babis said. “An attack that is actually directed against the entire Czech Republic.”

Billionaire Czech Premier Hits Back at EU Scrutiny

His latest comments resemble the rhetoric of other leaders in Warsaw, Budapest and Bucharest who have been on a collision course with the EU over erosion of democratic principles and the rule of law. Yet unlike them, Babis hasn’t interfered with the judiciary. He now faces the biggest protests since communism collapsed here in 1989.

“Babis’s pragmatic interests have been to maintain good relations with the European Union,” said Josef Mlejnek, a political scientist at the Charles University in Prague. “If this pressure persists, it could push him closer to Orban’s Fidesz or the Law & Justice in Poland.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Laca in Prague at placa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Andrea Dudik

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