PRAGUE (Reuters) -Czech populist ANO party leader Andrej Babis said he will announce how he will rearrange his business holdings just before being appointed as prime minister, hoping to clear objections by President Petr Pavel.
ANO won the October 3-4 parliamentary election and is forming a government with two fringe right-wing parties, including the far-right, anti-EU SPD.
Babis, an ally of Hungary’s Viktor Orban and far-right parties in the European Parliament, has pledged to keep the country firmly in the European Union and NATO but has flagged opposition to EU climate and migration policies.
Babis is a billionaire owner of hundreds of companies around central Europe ranging from farming to chemicals or healthcare, many of which receive national and EU subsidies and public contracts.
This is incompatible under the law that sets out requirements for holding a government post.
Babis has said he will not sell his main holding Agrofert, but will meet Czech and EU requirements. He has declined to say how. On Wednesday, President Pavel demanded that Babis make his intentions clear before he can appoint him to lead the cabinet.
“If the president wishes so, then I will say it publicly,” Babis told Czech media. “I think the course of action should be that I reveal the solution immediately before (the president) appoints me.”
Babis was previously prime minister in 2017-21 and his conflicts of interest were a constant concern. A Czech court and the European Commission eventually ruled his solution at the time – placing his firms in trust funds – were not sufficient.
Anti-corruption activists and legal experts have said the clean way for Babis would be either selling his firms, not being in government, or giving up all subsidies and public contracts.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka; editing by Mark Heinrich)
