ANO leader and probable next Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis was booed away from the memorial to 17 November 1989 on Prague’s Narodni street yesterday morning, as he gave a speech praising the events that led the Czech Republic to democracy.
Around 102,000 people came to Narodni street on yesterday’s national holiday to commemorate the events of 17 November, which triggered the fall of the communist regime in 1989, according to the organisers of the Narodni Parade event, based on data from mobile operators.
The Narodni Parade (Korzo), organised annually by the association Díky, že můžem (‘Thanks, That We Can’), commemorated the 36th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution on the street where communist police violently suppressed a student demonstration on 17 November 1989. The organisers also wanted to mark the 75th anniversary of the judicial murder of democratic politician Milada Horakova and the death of Josef Toufar, a Catholic priest tortured to death by the communist secret service.
Babis arrived in Narodni around 8am. He was met with a chorus of boos from his opponents, but also some voices of support from those present, who had been coming to the memorial since the morning.
Babis said in a short interview with journalists while walking in the street that they could talk about the current state of Czech society another time.
“It is important because we have gained freedom,” said Babis. “We have free elections, we have democracy, people can express their opinion without fear.” He added that the revolution also made it possible to travel and do business freely. “So the most important thing happened then and for that we must be grateful to those who had contributed to it.”
Babis came to Narodni with ANO deputy leaders Alena Schillerova and Karel Havlicek, and they laid flowers at the memorial commemorating the events of 17 November 1989. Following their election victory, ANO are currently negotiating a new government with the far-right anti-EU Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists.
Some people booed and shouted “shame” or “StB” at the politicians, a reference to Babis being registered as a collaborator of the former communist secret police (StB). But there were also isolated shouts in his support heard from the crowd, such as “Long live Babis” or “Long live Andrej”.
Babis attributed the protests against him on Narodni street to the fact that the Million Moments association had become active again.
“I have never been an StB agent, I have never signed anything, I have won all the court proceedings, so they are repeating some lies here,” he said. “I am surprised that the disinformation campaign against us is even stronger now after the elections than before them.”
In a tense atmosphere, the Motorists, led by chairman Petr Macinka, approached the memorial on Narodni before noon, and were met with significant booing and shouts of “shame”, but also expressions of support directed especially at the party’s honorary chairman Filip Turek, who is being discussed as the possible foreign minister in the emerging government.
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Macinka told journalists that 17 November was not a museum exhibit, but a reminder that freedom is not a given and must be protected from various ideologies. He said that freedom means the Motorists can meet their supporters on Narodni street, and at the same time meet their opponents, and this should be preserved.
Babis was a member of the pre-1989 Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) and worked at a foreign trade company during the ‘normalisation’ period – the restoration of the hard-communist rule following the 1968 Soviet-led occupation.
According to documents from the Slovak Institute of the Nation’s Memory (UPN), Babis became an StB collaborator in 1980, and two years later was recruited to work with the service as an agent, under the code name “Bures”.
Babis denies ever having knowingly collaborated with the StB, and was embroiled in court cases over the matter in Slovakia for many years. Eventually, he reached an agreement with the Slovak Ministry of the Interior, which acknowledged that Babis had been wrongfully registered as an StB agent in its documents, and had not knowingly cooperated with the communist secret service.
For Babis, the fall of totalitarianism in Czechoslovakia meant that he could start his own business. He founded Agrofert, a vast holding company with business interests in agriculture, food, fertiliser production, and many other sectors, which is now one of the largest companies in the country.
