Czech President Petr Pavel will appoint billionaire populist politician Andrej Babiš as prime minister, Politico reports.
Babiš announced on the evening of the 4th of December that he will resolve a potential conflict of interest that could have prevented him from taking the post of prime minister. His party won the Czech parliamentary elections in October and formed a coalition with two right-wing parties. However, before the government ministers can take office, they must also be approved by Pavel.
Babiš has been dealing with legal problems at home and abroad related to his agricultural giant Agrofert, which is also one of the country’s largest recipients of European Union subsidies. Addressing voters on the 4th of December, Babiš said that after winning the election he could have left politics or asked the party to nominate someone else for the prime minister’s post: “But I am convinced that you would perceive it as a betrayal. That is why I have decided to irrevocably give up the Agrofert company, with which I will no longer have anything to do, I will never own it, I will not have any economic relations with it, and I will not be in any contact with it.”
The populist politician’s victory further pushes Central Europe towards anti-EU politics, as Babiš will join the ranks of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, who have long opposed various initiatives from the bloc.
By announcing his departure from business, Babiš has shown that the prime minister’s post is important to him.
In the meantime, the company will be managed by a trust with an independent administrator. The politician stressed that this step was not easy for him, and it is more than the law requires. He said that he had built the company for half his life and that he was very sorry to have to leave it. Babiš added that his children would receive the company only after his death.
Pavel responded by announcing that he would officially confirm Babiš in his post on the 9th of December. He said that he appreciated the clear and understandable way in which Babiš fulfilled the agreement to inform the public about how a potential conflict of interest would be prevented.
The Czech president has previously emphasized that the main considerations in his decision to confirm the cabinet of ministers would be a firm position in support of the EU and NATO and the protection of the basic principles of the country’s democracy.
Czech law prohibits officials or their close relatives from owning or managing companies that could create a conflict of interest with their official duties. This does not mean that ministers cannot own companies, but they must put the public interest first, not the private. Similar rules apply at the EU level.
When Babiš was prime minister from 2007 to 2021, he put Agrofert, which consists of more than 250 companies, in the hands of a trust fund. However, Czech courts and the European Commission ruled in 2021 that Babiš retained influence in the companies, and thus violated EU rules on preventing conflicts of interest.
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