Fast confession – Andrej Babiš: A powerful man talks about fear, vice and vulnerability

A very simple question to start with. What is your situation now before the elections?

Awful, because my life has essentially changed. If I could take it back, I probably wouldn’t go into politics, because it’s a lot of dirt and I don’t think there has ever been a witch hunt like the one against me. Even reasonable people think about me in strange ways, because they are worried about my image from the media, which somebody else created. It just occurred to me – consider somebody like Mr Dědek, who was a philanthropist, a great manager, he had an image… in two weeks they transformed him into a former secret agent, an oligarch, a fraud. He lasted three weeks in politics. Some journalists initiate a witch hunt, they lie and a lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth. They make me a threat to democracy, Hitler, and I don’t know what else…

Is it possible to leave?

It’s not and I don’t even want to. We are 33 days from elections and this is of course fundamental for the future of our country. I am not exaggerating. If our Movement does not succeed, nobody else will show up to try and defeat the client-corruption system that works here. It’s always the same people – Zaorálek, Sobotka, Kalousek… the same politicians have been sitting in that parliament for a very long time, and when you ask them what they have done in life, they aren’t actually able to say anything.

And what about you? What are you proud of?

Well I’ve done plenty of things in life. I have been creating, building something all my life. I built a company that employs 35,000 people and is based on the Czech Republic. That is important. A company that, when it makes money abroad, sends it to the Czech Republic, unlike many large businessmen whose companies are based abroad and take money from the Czech Republic. Of course, employing so many people is a huge responsibility, taking care of their future. I went into politics because I stopped being afraid of the corruption system, even though I had disdain for it for a long time. Although it is evident now that the system is far stronger than I could imagine, because you can be incriminated even without evidence, and that it is a system of godfathers who control politicians and turn them into puppets… for me it is unacceptable that things work this way. I have devoted the last four years to trying to change the system, and I want to bring this change to a successful end.

But Mr Babiš, you are speaking about work affairs, politics. I’m interested in you as a person, what you are proud of in your personal life.

Well, of my family of course. I got married recently, the wedding was fantastic and we were all overjoyed. We finally enjoyed it with my wife after 23 years together. We finally got married. (laughs)

I suppose that at the beginning, she wanted it, but I thought it would look bad because everybody would say that she’s a gold-digger, that she’s marrying me for money, and she got offended… after some time, I was the one who wanted it, but she was still offended. And now… mainly our children wanted it. The greatest gift we received was a letter from our daughter. It was great.

Can you hint at what was in it?

(laughs) No, it’s kind of personal. In short… she wrote us a beautiful letter about family, about how we have to stick together. The situation now is complicated for the family… we both cried, it was beautiful.

That’s lovely. I like that. You can show an ordinary face, not just the political one. Aside from the wedding, it was also your birthday …

Geez, I don’t celebrate that. I celebrated by 40th, 50th and 60th, but after sixty I don’t celebrate anymore. We always have a family lunch or dinner, but that’s enough. I don’t really like it. The idea that I everybody would wish me well and give me gifts… I haven’t even property put away the gifts for my sixtieth birthday. At my age, it’s not even appropriate anymore. What’s more, there is no time. It’s a tough period.

I imagine it is tough before the elections, but you have to rest some time.

No, not at all now.

You didn’t even go on a honeymoon?

Well we’ve known where we would like to go for twenty years now. We still haven’t been there, so hopefully we make it. We would like to go to Bora Bora, but it’s awfully far away and there is no time.

But there could be some time after the elections, no?

We’ll see what happens.

What about your wife, is she not pressuring you to spend a bit more time together?

My wife works, she is finishing a hotel and restaurant, so she is working as well. She isn’t bored.

But she surely takes care to make sure you rest.

But it’s difficult with me, I am very hard to manage. We did take a short break in Italy, but naturally even during vacation one can’t switch off the mobile, journalists always want something and keep asking questions.

Is it that important to you, that you reply to everybody even on holiday?

I communicate with journalists directly, I usually don’t use an intermediary. But if you don’t reply, they write that you didn’t reply and it looks bad. I try. But it’s true that on vacation I do it secretly so my wife doesn’t see me, because she doesn’t like me being on my mobile during vacation. So I do it either early in the morning, or before dinner when she is getting ready, so I secretly sort it out. (laughs)

Luxusní rodinné domy a vily, Praha 6

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What about sports?

I’ve been into sports since a young age – tennis, basketball, skiing, swimming, volleyball. I like it. I support sports consistently, I’m interested in them. We want to provide sports with more support in our program as well. People don’t do enough sports.

But you are talking in past tense. How do you keep in shape now?

It’s true that I stopped doing sports a bit, I needed to sleep at least five hours. But I used to bike a lot, go to the gym. I am still involved in some way.

What about beauty?

Beauty? What do you mean? I don’t go for manicures or facials. Before the wedding they forced me into a salon and spent over an hour on my hair and beard. That was probably the second time in my life. I used to go to the supermarket and get my hair cut with a trimmer for about 140 crowns. But there was a queue and I didn’t want to wait, so I opened a hairdressing salon at the Sokolovna in Průhonice. I go there now.

How often do you go to Slovakia?

I don’t at all. I have a brother there; my parents have already passed unfortunately. I have friends there, but they all attended the wedding recently. We had it split up, I was allocated 100 guests and so was my wife, so I invited a lot of friends and former colleagues from Slovakia.

Can you recall any unforgettable experience from Slovakia, from school? Something you like to remember?

You know, I had a very strict upbringing from my father. We lived with my grandmother, my father worked abroad, and I didn’t want to emigrate with my parents because of friends. And when there was no more of my father’s supervision, I started enjoying the freedom. They even threatened to expel me from school. In the end a got a poor grade for behaviour. Sometimes I didn’t even go to school. I was very misbehaved in high school (laughs). I like to remember those times, we were a great group, we played basketball… at the time, four of us bought a car for 6000 crowns. We drove to Prague for matches, Slovan Sparta was playing, but our engine fell apart and the car stayed here… (laughs) I have been very ambitious from a young age, I wanted to make money. So I collected tennis balls for five crowns an hour, then then I went to sort packages, and basically I worked manually until the end of university. I wanted to save money.

What did you spend your first salary on?

Life was completely different then. I bought a car, saved up for it. It was a Wartburg Tourist for 35,000 crowns, second hand. When I inherited a 1+1 apartment from my grandfather, I furnished it. Then I dreamed of building a house, so I built a little townhouse - 312 metres squared. Built it with my own hands. I wanted to have a family and become independent as soon as possible. I got a red diploma at university and received an allowance of 350 crowns per month, which was quite a lot of money. I dreamed of studying foreign trade and working abroad to earn better money, to pay off the house for which I had a loan of about 250,000.

With the money you have now, do you look at prices?

I’m not the consumer type at all. The thing is that if you fulfil these goals in life, then it doesn’t interest you anymore. Motivations change throughout life, at least mine do. I never counted it. I only do it now because of politics. In fact, I am the only politician to have demonstrated my income for the past twenty years, and in that period I have paid almost 350 million in personal taxes. So I don’t do that, but what I do, because I’m a businessman, is try to negotiate prices even at brand name stores. (laughs)

But I go to stores minimally, maybe twice per year. I am not the consumer type – I don’t have a plane or a boat, I don’t wear jewellery. Although I do have a hoop now (wedding ring – editor’s note). I have to wear it, because my wife said that if I don’t wear it, she won’t either. So I got used to it. (laughs)

Does your wife arrange your clothing?

Yes, my wife dresses me. She buys me ready-to-wear clothing. I don’t have time to have things tailored.

You don’t have a stylist?

No, what for? I shop at Palzileri on Old Town Square, my wife ordered my wedding suit, and other than that I like shopping in Milan, but I haven’t been there for a long time. Another problem is that I’ve gained weight in politics, so at one point I had three sizes of suits at home. In July 2013 I weighed 77 kilos, 10% fat! But I gained up to 92 kilos, so I had to buy size 52 or 54 suits instead of size 50. I have returned to my normal weight again now.

You’re not the only person who gained weight in politics. How does it happen? Fifteen kilos is quite a bit.

Because people are always offering you something somewhere. In the government building I was always sitting at the buffet, stressed out… but it requires a strong will. Last summer I lost 11 kilos, I had a good diet and ate only three times per day, only sheep products, rye bread, fruit, meat, vegetables… It worked. I also exercised.

What about your vices?

I love chocolate, Swiss. I eat is secretly in the evening. The bitter Lindt type with salt, it is 80% cocoa, so I get the feeling it won’t make me fat.

Do you smoke?

I am a reformed smoker. I quit on 16 December 1996. But I smoked in high school, and then at work. It was a ritual. I would have a Turkish coffee and smoke a pack of Marlboros every day. But I quit cold turkey. I cut out a photo from some magazine, with the lungs of a smoker cut open and the cancer inside. I posted it on the wall and never lit another one again.

You have a strong will then. And now tell me what your day is like when you don’t have to work?

There are none! (laughs) But there were days when I would sleep from Friday to Saturday without an alarm. I would even sleep eight hours, didn’t work on Saturday, but did again on Sunday. This was when I was in business. In politics I work every day.

But that’s awful. At this age one wants to have peace. I am half your age and I want to have peace!

That’s true. I miss the basic things like getting a good night’s sleep. Or not hurrying, reading a newspaper in peace… but it’s just not possible now.

You told me you believe in God. Do you ever turn to him?

I don’t go to church regularly. But I often wonder if it’s fair. When I invented the Movement, I was backed by a fairly well-known journalist, Anička Stárková, later Veverková. We started out together. Unfortunately, in June 2013 she was crossing the street, got hit by a car and passed away. She had two children, was raising a family. So I asked myself how this could be possible, that it’s unfair.

But I have been helping people for some time. We even have a foundation. I have experienced cases… I recently tried to help a lady who had a seven-year-old daughter with cancer. I tried to help in every possible way, but she died. The woman’s house was being sequestered, so we bought her a house… there are various stories that I don’t even want to talk about, because then everybody will say that I’m doing it because of the elections, but that is nonsense. Some time ago I paid for one lady’s assisted reproduction and then forgot about it. She wrote me two years later to tell me she has twins. It makes me sad, I would like to help everybody, but it’s not possible.

Luxusní byt u Riegrových sadů - 66m, Praha 3

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Do a lot of people write you that they need help?

All the time. They keep writing. When the bond affair was invented, I was angry. At the time, I said that I would donate to the people everything I saved because of the law. It was 52 million. I got 3,700 e-mails. I had to hire a student to help me sort through them. The stories varied. People are different. Some are grateful, others want more even if you help them, and then there are those start threatening you if you say no for a third time …

There are many people who like you, but also many who despise you.

I know, but they despise the media image created by certain journalists. Then when some of them meet me and speak to me normally, they often change their mind.

But my question is whether you are afraid?

I am not afraid, I’m used to it. Sometimes things happen… recently somebody wanted to attack me with a water gun in Jindřichův Hradec, or at Colours of Ostrava a group got drunk and wanted to assault me… Unfortunately, these people are unable to communicate, they are under the influence of the lies in the media. Sometimes somebody spits or swears at me, but when I try to speak to them, they don’t want to. They have no arguments and just repeat the lies of journalists.

How do you feel when this happens?

I have no problem going out among the people, but I expect anything. There have been life-threatening cases in the past. At the time I was undertaking measures against gambling. This is why I have bodyguards. It’s is not for show. At the time there were at least four or five cases when it looked very serious.

You have a book titled What I dream about when I sleep. What do you dream about?

It’s a great book. I was inspired by Bata. It took us two years to write it, about 150 people worked on it. Mine was only the idea, I wrote the prologue, but the second chapter about how wonderful and clever Czech people are is important.

It’s difficult. On one hand I tell myself I shouldn’t have done it, on the other hand I have changed many things, but the fight with the system is hard. If we won and were in government, they I would have more and more worries with every election…

What is your wish? It doesn’t have to be political.

My private wish would be that I would like to spend more time with my family, return to my company, but I am a politician now and we have to fight, win the elections and create a government that will really work for the people, and not just with empty words. Some people say I went into politics to do better, but the opposite is true – everything is worse for me, everything. My life, my family life, the company… Nevertheless, I made this decision and now I have to fight for it. So I will tell you what I wish for most. There are many people who hate me and don’t know why, but also many people who support me and I can’t disappoint them.

Thank you very much for the interview and good luck.