Prague, Sept 19 (CTK) – The billionaire Andrej Babis succeeded in politics also thanks to an anti-corruption ethos that hit the classical Czech parties due to their mistakes, and now this ethos turned against him, which is good, Erik Tabery writes in weekly Respekt out on Monday about the bill on the conflict of interests.
Finance Minister Andrej Babis, who leads the ANO movement and owns the Agrofert chemical, farming, food-processing and media holding, has to choose either politics or business and media, Tabery says.
The draft amendment to the law on the conflict of interests that the Chamber of Deputies passed last week does not limit anybody’s rights, but it forces people like Babis to decide what kind of influence they want to have on society, whether through politics or media, Tabery writes.
A democratic system must be based on equal opportunities in the political competition. One can hardly compete with a political firm that owns the most influential media and is rich enough to buy anything it wants, Tabery says, referring to Babis’s ANO.
It is like in boxing with its weight classes: a lightweight champion can hardly defeat a heavyweight one, he adds.
According to the bill on the conflict of interests that the Chamber of Deputies sent to the Senate, government members will not be allowed to own media and their companies will not get state subsidies. To use another comparison from sports, the Chamber limited political doping, Tabery writes.
He says many people claimed that the bill was pointless and would only improve the position of Babis.
The opponents of the bill had the following five main arguments: the bill aims only against Babis, it bans successful people and entrepreneurs from entering politics, and it can be easily circumvented; the bill will help Babis because the traditional parties ganged up against him, and it is unfair to change the rules during the game, Tabery writes.
The last argument is invalid as politics is an infinite “game” and there are no breaks or periods in which nothing is decided on. As a result, every change is made during the game. Moreover, all is changing and developing and so it is necessary to react to the new impulses, Tabery writes.
The interconnections between media and politicians have always been risky and the rules were changed already in the past, for example when the left-wing leader Milos Zeman and the right-wing leader Vaclav Klaus tried to get public media under their control within the Opposition Agreement power-sharing pact, Tabery writes.
Babis is trying to privatise politics in another way and this triggered a reaction. If Babis did not abuse his dominant position on the market, a new law would not be needed, Tabery says.
It is not true that the bill concerns merely Babis. However, the more the ANO movement is complaining that the bill concerns just its owner, the more it shows how unique Babis’s conflict of interests is in the Czech Republic, Tabery writes.
But Babis simply forced open the door and it is a question of time when somebody else tries to use his wealth to seize control of politics, he says.
The critics of the bill are right to point out that Babis and other such entrepreneurs may easily make another member of their family the official owner of their media or firm receiving subsidies, Tabery writes.
Yet it should not be forgotten that laws also define on a general level what is and is not correct. This means that everybody will know that such a property transfer within the family was a controversial profit-seeking step, Tabery says.
Apart from this, it is not as easy to transfer one’s property on somebody else as it may seem. Andrej Babis himself may serve as an example of this: he transferred his Capi hnizdo countryside resort to his children at the moment when he needed to win European subsidies using a trick, but he had the ownership rights returned again as soon as the subsidy plan was successfully completed, Tabery writes.
The theory that the joint action of traditional parties resulting in pushing the bill through is interesting, but it is not based on any facts, Tabery says.
Public opinion polls show that ANO is supported by approximately 25 percent of adult Czechs, being the most popular party in the country. ANO voters are devoted to Babis and their loyalty is similar to that of the supporters of Klaus from the early 1990s. But ANO has been failing to further increase the number of its supporters. It seems very unlikely that clearer rules of the political competition would bring Babis new voters, Tabery writes.
The argument that the law does not let somebody enter politics is probably the most important one as it indicates that the bill is not in accordance with the constitution. But this is not true since successful individuals and businesspeople will still be allowed to enter politics. Their chance to succeed will be even higher because the rules of the game will be more fair, Tabery writes.
