‘Trumpist’ Czech PM-elect refuses to sell business empire amid conflict-of-interest row
www.theguardian.com
Billionaire populist Andrej Babiš insists he will meet legal obligations before taking office but does not explain how

Andrej Babiš, the self-proclaimed “Trumpist” billionaire who won last month’s Czech election, has refused to sell his huge business empire, but insisted he will resolve a conflict of interest that threatens to bar him from becoming prime minister.

Babiš, whose ANO party finished a comfortable first in the October vote but failed to secure a majority in parliament, said in a social media post on Thursday he would not sell his Agrofert farming, food processing and chemicals conglomerate.

“I have repeatedly said I will never sell Agrofert. I have repeatedly said I will resolve the conflict of interest in accordance with Czech and European laws,” Babiš, whose net worth is estimated $3.9bn (£2.9bn), said. “This is not like selling a roll in a bakery.”

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    We didn’t use to.

    Come on, dude. Do you think Simeon II - the former Bulgarian Tsar - was elected to the Prime Ministership five years after returning from exile because he was just an incredibly popular guy? Do you think its a coincidence that his government’s policies of sweeping privatization had anything to do with his habit of stuffing his minister roles with the same kind of Chicago School ghouls that helped Augusta Pinochet and Juan Orlando Hernández and Dilma Rousseff loot Latin America?

    Nevermind Orban on Hungary or Lech Kaczyński in Poland or… hell… Boris Yeltsin in Russia. Nothing says “we’re above board” like firing artillery rounds at your Parliament until you get your way.

    There was some run-of-the-mill corruption but most perpetrators kept a low profile or got caught.

    There was a pogrom against opposition leadership that capped off the Cold War with a bloodbath of mafia violence orchestrated by foreign intelligence services. And then a few of the more naked fascists - your Milosevics and Mikheil Saakashvilis - got pulled down to prove the post-Soviet “Rules Based International Order” wasn’t total bullshit.

    But the collapse of the old Soviet system unleashed all the worst excesses of capitalism on an utterly unprepared public. We’re seeing a fascist backlash in eastern europe as a direct response to the public revulsion at EU era over-exploitation.