Environment minister agreed to collaboration with secret police, shows a volume discovered in Czechia

Ján Budaj claims he did not help the ŠtB.

Ján Budaj at a press conference on February 2, 2023.Ján Budaj at a press conference on February 2, 2023. (Source: SITA)

Just as information about Ján Budaj’s collaboration with State Security (ŠtB), a secret service arm of the Czechoslovak communist regime, ruined his nascent political career in 1990, he is being reminded of his past when he is at the peak of his career as a 70-year-old environment minister for the OĽaNO party.

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After more than 30 years, a lost volume that the communist secret service kept on Budaj has reappeared. The volume includes a handwritten statement from 1979 reading that Budaj will report on his two close friends, Tomáš Petřivý and Gabriel Levický.

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“From the preserved volume it cannot be proven that I gave any reports about the mentioned people,” the minister said on February 2, a day after the Sme daily broke the story.

Budaj added that he welcomes the publishing of the volume.

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