Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 5, 2026
2 min readLast updated: April 1, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleOn March 5, 2026, the Czech lower house voted 104–81 (one abstention, 14 absent) to retain parliamentary immunity for Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, blocking a retrial over alleged €2 million EU subsidy fraud tied to Stork’s Nest until his term ends in 2029.
PRAGUE, March 5 (Reuters) - The lower house of the Czech parliament voted on Thursday to deny a court request for billionaire businessman and Prime Minister Andrej Babis to face trial in long-running prosecution over an alleged fraud in drawing a European Union subsidy.
Babis, head of the populist ANO party, returned to power after winning an election in October last year, despite charges in the case involving a 2 million euro subsidy granted in 2008, before he entered politics, for building a hotel and conference centre outside Prague called Stork Nest.
Deputies for ANO and ruling coalition partners, the far right, pro-Russian SPD party and the anti-Green Deal Motorists, voted on Thursday not to lift parliamentary immunity from Babis, voting records showed. The vote means Babis is protected from prosecution in the case until the end of the parliament's four-year term in 2029.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka; editing by Edward Tobin)
Babis was facing trial for alleged fraud in drawing a 2 million euro European Union subsidy intended for small businesses.
The lower house voted to deny the court's request to lift Babis's parliamentary immunity, shielding him from prosecution.
The Stork Nest case involves Babis allegedly hiding his ownership of a company to qualify for EU subsidies for building a hotel and conference center.
Babis is protected from prosecution until the current parliament's four-year term ends in 2029.
Yes, the parliament also denied lifting immunity for Babis's coalition ally Tomio Okamura, who faces hate speech charges.
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