Czech politician accused of plot to kill love rival's pet dog
But she was dropped from the party's candidate list after leaked recordings showed her apparently conspiring to hire an assassin to kill a dog belonging to her ex-husband's new partner.
The exposé, by Czech newspaper Seznam Zpravy, claimed that Ms Balastikova said: 'When are you going to arrange for her dog to be shot?'
A male voice then replied: 'Do you understand that this person is risking criminal liability?'
The pair discussed how a mutual contact would carry out the contract killing, and he could want as much as '€50,000' for the hit.
Ms Balastikova was divorcing her husband Josef Balastik at the time the recording was made in 2023. He secretly placed devices in their home to gather evidence of their fractious relationship, he claimed.
The MP claimed the audio had been fake but her party ordered her to stand down from the upcoming election over the scandal.
She said in a Facebook post: 'I have never sought out or contacted anyone to do something so terrible. If it is true that the police are looking into the matter, which I do not know yet, I expect to learn what I allegedly said.'
Mr Balastik's company filed a criminal complaint and investigations were ongoing.
His ex-wife claimed the allegations had been part of a plot to damage the party. 'The fact that all these lies have surfaced right now is, to me, a clear sign that it's an attempt to damage the ANO movement ahead of the elections,' she said, 'and perhaps also to distract from a number of government scandals'.
Mr Babis later told voters: 'Of course Balastikova messed up. You just can't talk like that… Unfortunately, it's her mistake and I dealt with it right away, because we all love animals.'
The Eurosceptic party leader is an admirer of Donald Trump and had aligned with Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban in European parliament.
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