The Czech Supreme Court in Prague has cancelled the acquittal of Czech populist leader and billionaire ex-Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and his ex-manager and Member of the European Parliament, Jana Nagyová, over the alleged €2mn Stork's Nest subsidy fraud.

Babiš reiterated during the court hearing on June 23 that he feels “innocent,” Czech Television (CT) reported, and blamed the “political establishment” for fabricating the whole case to discredit him for his entry into politics following the success of his ANO party in the 2013 elections on an anti-corruption ticket.

Judge Eva Brázdilová returned the case to the Prague City Court, noting in the ruling that the case contains a large amount of evidence showing that the accused were aware they were breaching subsidy rules.  

As bne IntelliNews reported, in April 2023 Czech state prosecutor Jaroslav Šaroch appealed against the January 2023 court decision, which acquitted Babiš and Nagyová of fraud charges, but it was followed by another acquittal in 2023.

Brázdilová noted that Babiš and Nagyová are suspected of subsidy fraud and harming the EU’s financial interests.

In the Stork’s Nest case, Babiš and Nagyová are accused of concealing the conference centre’s ties to Babiš’s large food, chemical and agricultural conglomerate Agrofert in order to claim an EU subsidy designed for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Anti-corruption NGOs such as Transparency International have been ringing alarm bells about the case since Babiš entered politics at the national elections in 2013.

The centre had originally been owned by Agrofert but was then transferred to a new company, owned by Babiš's family members, with his estranged son testifying that he was never the owner and his signature was most likely forged. Previous rulings accepted that the signature of Babiš's son was probably forged but said this had no bearing on Babiš's guilt or otherwise over the subsidy. 

UK bank HSBC also provided a loan to this new, unknown company because of its links to Agrofert, and Agrofert advertised heavily at the conference centre. In 2015 Babiš was even caught on camera boasting that Stork’s Nest was his idea and was one of his best projects.

The latest ruling comes as ANO is surging to victory in the October national elections, polling regularly above 30%, while the joint SPOLU list led by incumbent PM Petr Fiala trails by more than 10%.

Fiala and his neoliberal ODS party have also been rocked ahead of the elections by the scandal involving the ODS-run Ministry of Justice, which had accepted CZK1bn (€40mn) in bitcoin from a sentenced drug dealer, Tomáš Jiřikovský.  

However, the latest Stork’s Nest ruling may narrow down Babiš’s options to seek pro-EU coalition partners in the post-election arrangement, with liberal parties repeatedly stating they would not sit with Babiš in the cabinet due to his conflict of interests and ongoing court case.

Many of the country's political analysts also agree that the latest ruling could boost ANO in the eyes of the electorate, which is disillusioned with Fiala and the ruling coalition parties. 

Babiš has repeatedly stated he wants his ANO to score a high enough victory to be able to rule alone.

In the latest STEM poll for CNN Prima News, ANO leads with 31.2%, followed by SPOLU (20.4%), far-right SPD (13.3%), ruling coalition centrist Mayors and Independents (STAN, 9.4%), liberal Pirate Party (7.2%) and the red-brown STAČILO! list (5.4%).

Anti-green Motorists (4.4%) sit below the 5% parliamentary threshold, as does far right Přísaha (Pledge, 3%), social democratic SOCDEM (2.7%) and the Green party (2.2%).