Andrej Babiš (; born 2 September 1954) is a Czech politician and businessman who served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. Babiš previously served as the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister from 2014 to 2017 in Bohuslav Sobotka's Cabinet. He has been the founding leader of the political party ANO 2011 since 2012.
During a lengthy business career, he became one of the richest people in the Czech Republic, with an estimated net worth of about $4.04 billion according to Bloomberg. He is the owner of the Agrofert holding company, one of the country's largest firms.
Babiš was appointed Prime Minister on 6 December 2017, after ANO 2011 emerged as the largest party at the 2017 Czech legislative election. He was the oldest and wealthiest person ever to become Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, as well as the first from a different party than the Civic Democratic Party or the Social Democratic Party. Babiš is also the first Prime Minister born outside the Czech Republic, the first to hold dual citizenship, and the first whose native language is not Czech.
Babiš's political allies during his time as Prime Minister were President Miloš Zeman, the Czech Social Democratic Party, and the Communist Party. His administration increased pensions, child tax credits and public sector salaries. Major political events of his term include the expulsion of over 80 Russian diplomats and resident spies following the disclosure of Russian involvement in the 2014 Vrbětice explosions, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed around 35,000 people in the Czech Republic, triggering criticism of the government's response. His time in office was also marked by legal disputes with the European Commission due to accusations of conflict of interest and allegations of EU subsidy fraud. Babiš was succeeded as Prime Minister by Petr Fiala on 17 December 2021, following the 2021 election. Babiš was a candidate in the 2023 Czech presidential election and lost in the secound round to Petr Pavel.
Following allegations that an anonymous company he controlled unlawfully received a €2M subsidy from the European Regional Development Fund, Babiš was investigated by both the Czech police and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) from 2015 to 2017. He was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and formally charged on 9 October 2017. His trial began in Prague in September 2022 and resulted in acquittal in January 2023. Babiš has received sustained criticism over a number of issues, including alleged conflicts of interest, his past role in the StB, and allegations of intimidation of opponents. Babiš remains one of the most popular and divisive politicians in the Czech Republic.
Early life and career
Andrej Babiš was born on 2 September 1954 in Bratislava to a Slovak father from Hlohovec and a Carpathian German mother from Yasinia, now Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine. His father, a diplomat and member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), represented Czechoslovakia during the negotiation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Geneva and as a consultant at the United Nations. On his mother's side, he is the nephew of Ervin and Viera Scheibner.
Babiš spent part of his childhood abroad, and was educated in Paris and Geneva. Later, he studied at a gymnasium and continued to the University of Economics in Bratislava, where he studied international trade. In 1978, after graduating, he joined the Slovak state-controlled international trading company Chemapol Bratislava, which later became Petrimex. In 1985, he was appointed as the organisation's representative in Morocco. He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1980. During the 1980s, he was an agent for StB, the Czechoslovak secret state security service. Babiš denies knowingly being an agent of StB, but his legal challenges against the Slovak National Memory Institute were unsuccessful. It is alleged that he was also in contact with the Soviet KGB.
Business career
Babiš returned from Morocco to Czechoslovakia in 1991, after the Velvet Revolution, and settled in the Czech Republic after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia.