Lukačovič stated that Babiš has been repeatedly spreading lies about the Seznam.cz company and himself since the election, and these attacks are escalating even after Seznam filed a lawsuit against Babiš.
“Engineer Andrej Babiš is the most lying prime minister in the world, at least as far as the democratic countries from which I can draw data are concerned,” wrote Lukačovič in his opinion commentary on Seznam Zprávách.
He added that Babiš had to apologize for his false statements from the court’s decision four times, which surpasses even Jacob Zuma from the Republic of South Africa or Jair Bolsonaro from Brazil. In other cases, Babiš had to apologize as part of an out-of-court settlement.
“The same Andrej Babiš attacks Seznam Zprávy, Fairpress.cz and the newspaper Právo and claims that our media are constantly lying,” said Lukačovič. According to him, the prime minister can sue these media at any time, demand an apology and compensation for damages. However, this did not happen.
According to Lukačovič, on the contrary, it is the prime minister who repeatedly lies. According to him, the first lie is Babiš’s claim that Seznam.cz is not a Czech company. “Seznam.cz has been a Czech company since the beginning. And beware, it is one of the big tax payers in the Czech Republic. During its existence here, it paid almost twenty billion crowns in taxes and fees,” wrote Lukačovič.
Babiš also stated several times that Seznam.cz or Lukačovič did not personally pay withholding tax on dividends. However, withholding tax on dividends is paid only in cases where the dividend is paid by a natural person. “And I haven’t paid such a dividend in over ten years,” mentioned the owner of Seznam.
According to him, the third lie is Babiš’s attempt to depict the Swiss company Masaryk Holding AG, which owns Seznam.cz, as a one-time special purpose company. Lukačovič stated that he has been building this investment company for over fifteen years and moved it to Switzerland. He added that he should have founded it directly in Switzerland. She was originally based in Cyprus, which, according to Lukačovič, is not materially wrong, but it can be misused for propaganda purposes.
“I perceive Babiš’s repeated lies about Seznam, about our media and about me personally as a threat. It is nothing more than the acting prime minister of the country trying to intimidate the free and independent media and make them resign from the principles of critical and free journalism,” Lukačovič also wrote.
He added that anyone could run a media house in quiet times. “But isn’t it our role to be here precisely at the time of emerging authoritarian tendencies and the threat of the country’s deviation from its western direction? Isn’t this the moment for which I spent thirty years building Seznam.cz?” he asked rhetorically.
“We have a media that tries to publicly harm the Prime Minister with the help of various lies, but it cannot silence, bend or influence them in any way. Seznam.cz and its media will not go anywhere,” concluded Lukačovič.
