Czech Government Survives No-Confidence Vote

Czech Prime Minister Adrej Babis pictured in 2015. Wikimedia Commons.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s government survived a vote of no-confidence in Czechia’s Chamber of Deputies over a financial fraud scandal on November 23. The Czech opposition coalition—consisting of ODS, the Pirates, SPD, KDU-CSL, TOP09 and STAN—only comprises 92 of the 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, short of the 101 needed to pass the motion, according to the Associated Press (AP).

According to the New York Times, the alleged financial fraud occurred in 2007, when Capi Hnizdo, a farm owned by Babis’s company Agrofert, gained access to €2 million worth of EU funds. Among its shareholders were two children from Babis’s previous marriage, his current wife, and her brother. According to the BBC, he failed to disclose this when the company was formed, which the investigation claims was to qualify for small business subsidies.

Calls for the recent vote against Babis started in early November, after news site Seznam Zpravy released a documentary starring Babis’s son, Andrej Babis Jr, who held shares in Capi Hnizdo, reports the Guardian. Quartz writes that Babis Jr. alleges that, while being sought for questioning about the fraud investigation, he was offered a choice by his father between taking an extended holiday to Crimea or checking into a mental hospital. However, he says that in Crimea he was detained by two Russians, including one who had treated him earlier at a Prague mental institution.

BBC reports that Babis Sr. dismissed his son’s claims, responding that he requires medication and constant supervision, and that Czech police had investigated and rejected the kidnapping allegations.

However, these denials have not satisfied the Czech opposition. Six opposition parties issued a joint statement calling for Babis’s resignation on November 13 ahead of the planned motion.

The key roadblock the opposition faced had been getting the support of Babis’s junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats (CSSD), writes Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL). Although the leader of the CSSD Jan Hamacek says the party wants Babis to resign, they abstained from the vote and, according to Czech Public Radio, the opposition failed to garner majority support. Hamacek explained that the party’s priority is to continue the current government’s policy agenda despite leadership problems.

The Communist Party also declined to support the motion and voted in favor of Babis, writes the Financial Times.

Most frustrated with the ordeal has been the Czech population. RFERL writes that thousands of protesters rallied in Prague to demand a change of leadership the night of the failed vote. Marches calling for Babis’s resignation had also been held regularly leading up to the ballot, according to the Straits Times.

The Czech Prime Minister is on shaky ground—this marks the second such vote since last year’s election, writes the New York Times. Furthermore, Czech Public Radio reports that a Median poll found that 57 percent of Czechs think Babis tried to stop his son from being questioned, and support could fall further as more information is revealed. Analysts write that Czechia is caught in a stalemate between furthering democracy and democratic backsliding.

Nonetheless, a leadership change in the near future seems unlikely as Czech President Milos Zeman said that he would reinstate Babis even if voted out by Parliament, writes the Straits Times.