How Fico got caught in a corruption scandal and what Orbán and the future Czech PM have to do with it

The Slovak government led by Robert Fico wants to "gift" hundreds of millions of euros to the future prime minister of neighbouring Czechia, Andrej Babiš.

This news could seriously affect public support for Fico’s government and at the same time impact Slovakia’s relations with the EU.

Read more about why the Slovak prime minister is taking such a big risk and why he needs support from the Czech government in the article by Yurii Panchenko, European Pravda's editor: Fico "buys" a new ally: what is behind Slovakia’s major corruption scandal. 

Parliamentary elections in Czechia were held on 3-4 October, and just a few weeks later, Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment Tomáš Taraba visited Andrej Babiš, the leader of the ANO party, which placed first in the election.

Taraba said on Facebook that the goal of the visit was to establish good relations between the governments and declared that Czechia and Slovakia would jointly resist the EU’s "Green Deal."

But only a few days later, Slovakia’s Ministry of the Environment announced an initiative to begin land rehabilitation at the contaminated Istrochem factory site in Bratislava.

The factory was purchased in 2002 by Andrej Babiš’s company Agrofert.

Even then, it was clear that the plant’s main value was its land – the industrial site occupies a huge area (around 150 hectares) in the capital’s Nové Mesto district.

So it’s no surprise that in 2015 the factory fully ceased operations and has remained mothballed since.

Istrochem was sold at a preferential price, but with an obligation to invest in environmental cleanup.

The site was unfit for habitation and posed a threat to surrounding neighbourhoods in Bratislava.

For a while, the issue was "forgotten," but it resurfaced after a change of government in Slovakia.

In 2020, new prime minister Igor Matovič stated that Andrej Babiš had failed to meet the investment requirements and must invest at least €200 million in environmental cleanup of the former factory site.

Agrofert rejected the accusation, claiming it had already invested 1 billion Czech crowns in cleanup but provided no documents to prove it.

And now this dispute reemerged immediately after Babiš won the election and began forming his government.

Slovak officials say the cleanup will not be financed from the national budget but with an EU grant.

So what is Robert Fico hoping to gain by offering such a lavish "gift" to the likely head of the Czech government?

The most common explanation is that Fico is trying to secure new political guarantees – a backup plan in case Viktor Orbán loses the next Hungarian elections.

If Orbán’s government falls, Fico would be left defenceless against possible punishment from the EU and there are plenty of reasons for sanctions, including his recent visit to Moscow.

In such a situation, Fico urgently needs "a replacement for Orbán," another country willing to block EU measures against Slovakia.

And for that, spending hundreds of millions of euros, especially EU money, may seem worth it.

However, there is one major problem: the emerging scandal could have the opposite effect. Any support for Robert Fico from the new Czech government may now be viewed exclusively through the lens of corruption.

That significantly raises the political risks for Andrej Babiš.