People walk past an election campaign poster for Andrej Babis of the ANO party in Prague (Getty Images)
And the ultimate irony of Babis’s controversies – including allegations about his foreign property ownership – is that his ANO party was originally formed as an anti-corruption outfit.
This apparent hypocrisy is again in evidence in the Pandora Papers affair, with Babis having repeatedly criticised the practice of Czechs using offshore tax havens in the past.
“When the Pirates suggested that tax havens should be tackled systematically on the European level, Andrej Babis became furious and called us traitors. Now, it is crystal clear why. He only fights for his own interests,” Pirate MEP Marcel Kolaja told The Independent.
Public opinion may be entrenched along party lines ahead of the coming Czech elections, but the publication of the Pandora Papers has provided a timely reminder of long-held concerns about Babis’s leadership.
Czech voters are now left to ask themselves once again whether they can stomach another four years of controversy around their elected leader.
Source link : https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/czech-republic-babis-election-pandora-b1931839.html
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Publish date : 2021-10-04 07:00:00
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