Prime Minister Babis Accuses EU Of Meddling In Czech General Election Campaign

PRAGUE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2021) Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Thursday condemned the European Union for interfering in the ongoing parliamentary election campaign in his country.

"Brussels is meddling in our election campaign, though it has nothing to do with it. It is none of their business! We are a free and a sovereign nation. Besides, it also applies to (Vera) Jourova (the European Commission vice-president, a representative of the Czech Republic), who discourses upon who will head the ANO party and if it will govern (the country) or not. It is not her problem, and it is no concern of hers, and she is not entitled to talk about it," Babis said in an interview to the Czech internet Parlamentni listy news outlet.

The prime minister said that such actions of politicians from Brussels can be regarded as an attack on the Czech Republic and interference into its internal affairs.

"It mostly comes from the European Parliament and affects not only the Czech Republic, but also Hungary and Poland.

I link it with their intention to influence the elections," Babis assumed.

General elections will take place in the Czech Republic from October 8-9. The latest polls show that the centrist ruling ANO party, headed by Babis, is the most preferred, with 28-32% of prospective voters. The lower house's speaker, Radek Vondracek, told the national CNN Prima News TV-channel that he did not rule out the possibility of ANO forming a coalition with the right-wing Freedom and Direct Democracy party after elections.

On Wednesday, Babis criticized the border policy of the EU which is not protecting Europe from illegal migrants in a proper way.

In early September, the European Commission warned Prague that it could suspend subsidies allocated for the country over the conflict of interests of Babis, who controls various companies and has allegedly funneled the EU funding to his business.