Tens of thousands protest against Czech PM after EU funds conflict of interest case

Tens of thousands of Czechs protested against Prime Minister Andrej Babis after prosecutors reopened a case into alleged subsidy fraud by the leader and Brussels declared a conflict of interest between his businesses and political role.

Speakers at the protest in Prague by the Million Moments for Democracy civic group demanded Babis’s former business empire Agrofert be cut off from European Union subsidies and public contracts, and they called on Babis to resign.

Tuesday’s protest was called after the country’s top prosecutor reopened last week a case against Babis, suspecting that he hid ownership of one of his firms a decade ago so it would qualify for a 2 million euro subsidy.

Separately, an audit by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive, leaked to Czech media last week, showed the Commission saw Babis in conflict of interest because he still had control over Agrofert, a conglomerate of hundreds of firms he had built over the past two decades and put into trust funds in 2017.

Via Reuters

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