Czechs Protest as Billionaire Premier Faces Renewed Fraud Probe
Czechs Protest as Billionaire Premier Faces Renewed Fraud Probe
(Bloomberg) -- Tens of thousands of Czech marched in renewed protests against the country’s billionaire prime minister, Andrej Babis, who’s embroiled in an investigation into alleged fraud.
The rally is part of a wave of the largest anti-government demonstrations since the fall of communism. They were triggered by charges by police that Babis illegally obtained European Union funds for one of his businesses more than a decade ago. He rejects the allegations as an attempt from his rivals to push him from power and vowed not to step down.
The top prosecutor last week affirmed a decision to drop fraud charges against members of Babis’s family, but renewed the probe into Babis himself, rekindling the prospect that the chemical, agriculture and media tycoon may face a court trial. The same week, a document leaked to Czech media showed that the EU’s executive arm found Babis in a conflict of interest.
“We want politicians who don’t steal, who don’t lie and who aren’t in conflict of interest,” Mikulas Minar, the leader of the activist group organizing the protests, told the crowd at Prague’s Wenceslas Square. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case with our prime minister.”
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Babis, one of the richest Czechs with a net worth estimated at $2.2 billion, is a divisive figure in the nation of 10.7 million. While the fraud and conflict-of-interest allegations sparked the strongest display of public discontent since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, he remains the nation’s most popular leader.
Two opinions polls this week showed support for Babis’s ANO party at around 30%, and another put it at 35%, more than twice as high as its nearest competitor.
After rising to power with attacks on traditional parties and campaigning against Muslim refugees, he’s focused his policies on increasing pensions and state-workers’ salaries as well as investing more in building highways.
“A normal person would have probably left by now,” Babis said in his weekly Facebook address to his supporters. “But not me. As it’s generally known, I’m a dogged beast.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Laca in Prague at placa@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey
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