Finance Minister says recordings were manipulated

Finance Minister Andrej Babiš, at the centre of a government crisis over unexplained finances, has said that leaked recordings in which he can be heard speaking to a journalist from the daily Mladá fronta Dnes about sensitive information on a number of politicians, including the prime minister, has said the material was manipulated; he also called it a provocation on the part of the journalist. Speaking in Plzeň on Friday, he said he felt he had been the subject of surveillance for years and blamed the interior minister, Milan Chovanec, charging there was a coordinated campaign to “destroy him”. The recordings appeared online this week; the ANO leader has filed a criminal complaint over the matter.

Author: Jan Velinger