Czech foreign minister slams election winner Babiš as Orbán’s ‘puppet’

Babiš, a populist tycoon who was reelected earlier this month but has yet to form a government, stated after his victory that he would not be seeking confrontation with the European Union, News.Az reports citing Politico.

But for Lipavský, who’s part of Czechia’s outgoing government, the likely incoming prime minister is set to follow in the footsteps of his political ally Orbán, who is at odds with Brussels and the EU mainstream on everything from the rule of law to support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Babiš won’t be at the European Council gathering, where Czechia will be represented by outgoing Prime Minister Petr Fiala. Babiš is negotiating with two right-wing parties to form a government and, according to a person aware of his thinking, intends to make debut at an upcoming European leaders’ summit in December.

When Babiš does return, Lipavský warned, he could be under the influence of two hard-right parties at home — which he described as “MAGA style” and resembling the far-right Alternative for Germany party — and was likely to be acting in concert with Orbán as part of a “Visegrad” coalition.

“I feel that Andrej Babiš … is living in his dream of strong leader banging with shoe to the table, saying no, vetoing things and [pretending to bring] back some benefits from Europe to to Czechia. But the real European politics do not work this way,” Lipavský said in the interview, which took place on the sidelines of a foreign ministers’ gathering in Luxembourg.

In the past few years, Czechia has been one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters on the EU stage, launching an ammunition scheme which has pooled resources from across the bloc to deliver more than 3 million shells to Kyiv. Prague has also taken some of Europe’s toughest measures to limit the movements of Russian diplomats in and out of the country.