PRAGUE - Tens of thousands of Czechs hit the streets on Tuesday to demand the resignation of billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis over alleged conflicts of interest involving his former business empire and an investigation into a decade-old EU subsidy.
Protests against Babis have swelled since the end of April just as Czech police concluded investigations into whether he illegally received a 2 million euro EU subsidy for a farm and convention center a decade ago and recommended he face trial. “We will not act like it is normal that the prime minister of our country remains ... in such a conflict of interest that his personal problems damage the whole country,” organizer Mikulas Minar told protesters from a stage just below the imposing 19th-century National Museum.Demonstrators filled the 700-meter-long rectangular Wenceslas Square, scene of some of the most politically momentous gatherings in Czech history.
Babis has clashed with western European Union leaders over his tough anti-immigration policy but has been more pro-EU than nationalist counterparts in Poland or Hungary. Babis shifted Agrofert into a trust fund arrangement in 2017 to comply with new Czech legislation on conflicts of interest.
Babis' Antwort auf die Vorwürfe aus der EU kann nur so interpretiert werden: 'Der Staat bin ich.' Oligarchischer Feudalismus pur.