Holiday feud erupts between Slovakia and Czechia over Babiš and the secret police

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico marked Czechia’s independence day by lambasting Petr Fiala, his counterpart in Prague.
Fiala recently disagreed with the Slovak Interior Ministry’s decision to clear Andrej Babiš, the former Czech prime minister and now-surging opposition leader, of accusations that he knowingly collaborated with the communist-era Czechoslovak secret police (ŠtB).
That intervention triggered a blunt response from Fico on Monday, also Czechia’s national independence day holiday.
Fico said in a Facebook post that he hopes Fiala’s recent statement “questioning the credibility of sovereign Slovak institutions” regarding the Babiš decision was “just an exceptional excess [and] not establishing a tradition of unjustified interference in Slovak sovereign affairs.”
The feud represents a further freezing of icy diplomatic relations between Czechia and Slovakia since Fico came back to power last year, which culminated in the suspension of inter-governmental meetings in March.
Last week’s legal settlement clearing Babiš sparked strong reactions from both the Czech government and Slovakia’s opposition.
Fiala condemned the court settlement between the Interior Ministry and Babiš, calling it an “unbelievable political agreement” between the former Czech leader and “friendly” politicians in Slovakia.
Mária Kolíková, an opposition politician from Slovakia’s Freedom and Solidarity party (SaS), said the settlement was a political favor to Babiš who supported the country’s President Peter Pellegrini when he was running for the office in April.
Slovakia’s Interior Ministry has denied the claims, saying that it concluded the settlement “in order to avoid the economic losses,” as winning the case in court would prove difficult.
Babiš has long rejected the claims, made over the span of more than 10 years by various politicians and historians based on documents in the Nation’s Memory Institute (ÚNP) archive, that he collaborated with ŠtB. He has been involved in legal battles with Slovakia’s courts over the matter for several years now.
ÚNP, which keeps historical records from the totalitarian Czechoslovak regimes, said that Babiš’s registration as an ŠtB agent was legitimate and supported by documents.
“The decision of the Interior Ministry to conclude a settlement with A. Babiš does not change this fact,” said the institute.
The settlement boosts Babiš’s already sky-high prospects in next year’s Czech parliamentary elections, legitimizing him as a choice for people who were hesitant about voting for him because of his communist past.