President Zeman, advisors discuss budget with PM Babiš, but not BIS wiretapping claim

President Miloš Zeman and his advisors met with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš Minister of Finance Alena Schillerová at the Lány chateau on Saturday morning to discuss the 2022 draft state budget with a planned deficit of 390 billion crowns.

Following the meeting, Schillerová told reporters that the president’s claim that the BIS counterintelligence service head Michal Koudelka had ordered people close to him spied on was not discussed during that group meeting.

Zeman last Sunday also claimed in a television interview that Babiš had promised to bring an end to the alleged spying. Both the BIS head and the prime minister denied that there is any truth to Zeman’s accusations.

Zeman has long been a vocal critic of acting BIS chief Michal Koudelka, whom he has now six times refused to promote to the customary rank of general, and effectively blocked from being reappointed.