Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Tuesday accused the parliamentary election front-runner, populist Andrej Babiš, of helping Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The current Czech government coalition, consisting of four parties led by Fiala, has been one of Ukraine’s closest allies in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion — but that could all change after this fall’s election.
“Babiš is against this ammunition initiative, against spending on defence, he talks about peace without any conditions,” Fiala, leader of the conservative Civic Democratic Party (ODS), told the Financial Times in an interview.
“He helps Vladimir Putin, it’s very clear,” he added.
Fiala went on to say that the Czech-led ammunition initiative — set up to to gather donations from allied countries to cofinance the purchase of ammunition for Ukraine from producers around the world — could be in danger if the government changes.
Based on surveys carried out by STEM research institute, the former premier Babiš is dominating the polls with 33 percent, with Fiala’s SPOLU coalition barely reaching 17 percent.
Babiš, leader of the populist ANO party, has been echoing rhetoric by leaders Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Robert Fico in Slovakia, insisting that the real solution to Russia’s war in Ukraine is diplomacy instead of sending further weapons. Kyiv, for its part, doesn’t believe that the Kremlin is truly serious about ending the conflict diplomatically.
Along with senior members of his party, Babiš has also been critical of the ammunition initiative — but says he expects United States President Donald Trump to end the war before his government could potentially come to power.
The post Czech PM accuses election front-runner of helping Putin appeared first on Politico.
