Facing graft charges, Czech populist unveils anti-corruption election platform

Facing graft charges, Czech populist unveils anti-corruption election platform
"BABIS THIEVES!" is scrawled across this ANO campaign poster seen in Western Moravia in which ANO leader Andrej Babis promises to send more money than ever to the Czech regions thanks to his plan to run the government like a business. / Jiří Sedláček
By bne IntelliNews September 4, 2017

Billionaire Czech populist Andrej Babis launched his ANO party’s general election campaign platform at the weekend with an emphasis on fighting entrenched corruption, although his anti-graft message has been somewhat undermined by the fact that he himself is facing the threat of fraud charges.

Nevertheless, opinion polls have so far shown that ANO’s double-digit lead among likely voters in the October 20-21 election has been little impacted by the Stork’s Nest affair - centred on a €2mn subsidy for a farm and conference centre developed by Babis outside Prague - and Babis is also driving home popular Eurosceptic promises such as staying out of the Eurozone for the time being and pushing the EU to seal its external borders against illegal migration.

"We have to fight for security, and promote the sealing of Europe’s external border, stopping illegal migration," Babis, finance minister from 2014 until last May, told the party conference. ANO is currently a junior partner in the government led by the Social Democrats (CSSD).

He also told conference delegates: "The euro is at this point not beneficial for us and also will not be in the coming period." Public support for the euro in the economically-strong Czech Republic is low and the crown has been so robust that it has warranted intervention from the central bank in recent years to protect the export-reliant Czech economy.

ANO's manifesto outlines how the party would support reforms of the EU and the Eurozone and strengthen relations with Paris and Berlin to stay close to the key players plotting the EU's direction.

Babis said voters would have a unique chance to break away from what he depicted as a corrupt web around traditional parties. However, should ANO win the election and attempt to form a government with coalition partners, Babis may not be able to become prime minister. On September 6, the Czech parliament will vote on whether to allow police to press charges against the ANO leader, who denies any wrongdoing. Several parties have already stated they could not see themselves working with a prime minister facing criminal charges.

In order to prosecute Babis and ANO deputy Jaroslav Faltynek in the Stork’s Nest affair the police need MPs to vote to strip the pair of their parliamentary immunity. The case, which Babis and Faltynek say is politically motivated and timed to coincide with the election build-up, centres on Capi hnizdo (Stork’s Nest) farm. In 2007-2008, the asset was part of Agrofert, a giant chemical, agricultural and food-processing firm built by Babis. Afterwards, the firm’s owner changed through a chain of transactions and the new owner became hard to identify. Subsequently it gained a CZK50mn (€1.9mn) EU subsidy designed for small enterprises. Agrofert, which later retook ownership of Capi hnizdo, could never have won the public aid itself.

ANO's programme announced at the party conference also pledges to cut insurance charges paid by employers and employees; slightly lower effective personal-income tax rates; lower VAT for some sectors and services; push up teachers' and culture workers’ pay by 50% over four years; refrain from privatising anything in healthcare; gradually return water-utility assets to the state; create a Schengen bor­der patrol and achieve national self-sufficiency in basic foodstuffs.

Current PM Bohuslav Sobotka (CSSD), who is stepping down, made fun of ANO’s new campaign slogan, “Now or never”, by saying “Better never”.

Opponents sceptical of Babis’s anti-corruption focus also point out that he could never have grown Agrofert the way he did without the system he now slates.

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