• Try a Digital Subscription campaign: inyt2013_bar1_digi_euro_3LFL3 -- 221762, creative: bar1_digi_euro_3LFL3 -- 353957, page: www.nytimes.com/yr/ mo/day/world/europe/ czech-politician-faces-claims-of-aiding-secret-police.html, targetedPage: www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/world/europe, position: Bar1 • Log In • Register Now • Help • Home Page • Today's Paper • Video • Most Popular Edition: U.S. / Global Search All NYTimes.com [ ] Search New York Times Europe • World □ Africa □ Americas □ Asia Pacific □ Europe □ Middle East • U.S. • N.Y. / Region • Business • Technology • Science • Health • Sports • Opinion • Arts • Style • Travel • Jobs • Real Estate • Autos Czech Politician Faces Claims of Aiding Secret Police [CZECH-articleLarge] Milan Bures for The New York Times The billionaire Andrej Babis denies claims he was a Communist-era secret police agent. By DAN BILEFSKY Published: November 12, 2013 PARIS — Andrej Babis, a populist billionaire who handed out doughnuts to voters at subway stations, emerged as a surprise kingmaker in the recent Czech elections by fashioning himself as a self-made outsider who would stamp out corruption and sleaze. World Twitter Logo. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors But now Mr. Babis, 59, a blunt-spoken Slovak food, media and chemicals mogul with a Czech passport and properties in the French Riviera, is being forced to grapple with a murky past. Prague, the Czech capital, is buzzing with talk of secret files code-named “Soldier” and “Eye” that purport to expose him as a Communist-era secret police agent, an allegation he denies. The center-left Social Democrats scraped together a slim victory in parliamentary elections held last month after a spying and bribery scandal. But by many accounts, the real winners were Mr. Babis and his anti-establishment party, Ano, or Yes. The party’s second-place showing, with about 19 percent of the vote — not far behind the Social Democrats, who had about 20.5 percent — makes it indispensable in creating a coalition government. Mr. Babis, who won a seat in Parliament himself, is being mentioned as a possible prime minister or finance minister. Yet, in a region where history is close to the surface, Mr. Babis’s dizzying rise has been clouded by allegations from the Nation’s Memory Institute, based in Slovakia, that he worked in the 1980s for the reviled Czechoslovak secret police, the StB. Czechoslovakia split 20 years ago into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Today, Czechs who collaborated with the secret police can be barred from holding public office. It is a reflection of many Czechs’ ambivalence about their own collaboration with the Communist government that the details of Mr. Babis’s files that emerged during the campaign did not stop his party from doing well. But if he is blocked from joining a future administration or decides to remain on the sidelines, the country could emerge with a minority government, worsening its political instability. Already, the allegations are unsettling some in Ano’s ranks. In a report published on Tuesday, Ivan Pilny, a senior party figure, threatened to resign if Mr. Babis turned out to have been a secret police agent. “If we are presented with proof that Mr. Babis collaborated with the StB, I would have to leave the party, as that would mean he lied to us,” Mr. Pilny told Mlada Fronta Dnes, a leading Czech news outlet. According to previously classified documents released by the Nation’s Memory Institute, Mr. Babis was registered as an informant in 1980 and became an agent two years later. His code name was Bures, a common Czechoslovak surname. The files describe how Mr. Babis, who then worked for a state foreign trade company dealing in chemicals, purportedly met with secret police handlers in 1982 at a bar in Bratislava, now the capital of Slovakia. Later, the “Soldier” file says, they met at least 17 times. The “Eye” file lists two reports Mr. Babis is said to have sent to a colleague, without giving details. In a telephone interview from Prague, Mr. Babis denied the accusations, saying he had been summoned to meet with the secret police at most three times and had never joined their ranks. He said the files were forgeries made by the StB to blackmail him, in part because some of his family members had affronted the government by emigrating. At the time, he said, the state wanted to import phosphates from Syria and he refused because the materials posed a health hazard, making him a target of official ire. He has taken the Slovak institute to court and demanded that he be removed from the list of collaborators. A hearing is scheduled for January. “It is nonsense,” Mr. Babis said. “I never signed anything. I was a victim. I never did anything wrong to anyone.” He added that he was not proud of having been a member of the Communist Party, but that he had joined at his mother’s urging, out of economic pragmatism. “I was young; I did stupid things,” he said, noting that only a minority of Czechoslovaks had the courage to be dissidents. “To get by, you had to cooperate.” Tomas Bursik, a historian at the archives of the security services in Prague, noted that a large portion of Mr. Babis’s files had been destroyed, and that what remained did not contain any examples of his handwriting or signature. “This all reminds me of a witch hunt,” Mr. Bursik said. [meter] • 1 • 2 Next Page » Hana de Goeij contributed reporting from Prague. A version of this article appears in print on November 13, 2013, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Czech Politician Faces Claims of Aiding Secret Police. * Subscribe to the International New York Times newspaper and save up to 65% Get Free E-mail Alerts on These Topics Babis, Andrej Czechoslovakia Police Communism (Theory and Philosophy) [1388695317439_us] Banned at home and noticed by Oscars Also on NYTimes.com • Oscar season preview • Learn about Christian Bale's character secrets nytimes.com [13_2259_INYT_Anon_Euro_300x79_ER1] [moth_rever] [moth_forwa] Inside NYTimes.com Opinion » Opinion » Offending Television Theater Business Bloomberg » Op-Ed: » » or Opinion » N.Y. / Fired? Speaking ‘Downton Sports » Region » U.S. » Speak No Theater » In Your From Ore Truth? Abbey’ Op-Ed: Evil Opinion » Seat to Returns Europeans Delivering Books » but on Nuggets, Room for for a United, an Opinion Giving up Your With Debate Fourth in Hating Is Tebow’s Review Houston the right When Toes Peril asks Season Europe New Test of and Its to speak Spidey Op-Ed: whether Table for Bayonne Strip and write Flies No Lethal In Your From Ore speakers ‘Downton Op-Ed: Delivering Two Bridge Clubs freely More, Malfeasance Seat to at the de Abbey’ Europeans an Opinion (Countries) Project Call a strikes Will in Malawi but on Nuggets, Blasio Returns United, Is Tebow’s Is Truce me as the Business? Your With inaugural for a in Hating New Test Assailed unholiest Toes Peril were rude Fourth Europe of deals or merely Season for a speaking writer to for accept. voters. • © 2013 The New York Times Company • Site Map • Privacy • Your Ad Choices • Advertise • Terms of Sale • Terms of Service • Work With Us • RSS • Help • Contact Us • Site Feedback * * DCSIMG