Illustrative photo – Andrej Babiš at the debate of presidential candidates on Nova TV, January 26, 2023, Prague.
Prague – Among the costs of the presidential campaign of Andrej Babiš, the ANO movement also started the former prime minister's trip to see French President Emmanuel Macron. The iROZHLAS.cz server drew attention to it today, to which ANO spokesman Martin Vodička confirmed it. Macron received Babiš on January 10, three days before the first round of the presidential election. Expenses for the trip, according to Babiš's transparent account, amounted to over 434,000 crowns.
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At the same time, Babiš told ČTK in mid-January that the visit was not a marketing move, that he has friendly relations with Macron. He recalled that he also met with him last fall in Prague at the European Union summit.
“Yes, these are expenses for the trip of Andrej Babiš and his team to Paris, where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron and businessman Bernard Arnault,” Vodička told the website iROZHLAS.cz, who expected that if the trip was not included in the costs, he would deal with the matter The Office for the Supervision of the Management of Political Parties and Movements.
The chairman of the supervisory office František Sivera, however, said according to the server that Babiš's trip to France was practically not resolved. According to him, the matter will probably start to be discussed more now that the amount has appeared on the account. According to Sivera, there is no problem even in the reverse billing of the trip.
“France is the only nuclear power in the European Union after the departure of Britain. Macron is the leader of Europe, he recently visited (US President Joe) Biden. He has ideas about some peace initiatives . This was not a marketing move, we have friendly relations,” Babiš told ČTK on the way.
His opponent, former high representative of the Czech army and NATO Petr Pavel, said at the time that it was not standard for the president of a democratic country he received the presidential candidate a few days before the election, but called it a matter for France. Pavel succeeded in the election, defeating Babiš in the second round.
