Mogul faces parliament amid tough government talks

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November 20, 2017 6:47 PM

Billionaire Andrej Babis sought support on Monday for his controversial bid to become Czech prime minister as parliament met for the first time after his populist ANO party won elections last month.

Billionaire

Snubbed by most traditional parties over his murky communist past and recent fraud charges, Babis has been forced to propose a minority administration.

Campaigning on an anti-corruption, anti-euro and anti-migrant ticket, ANO won 78 of 200 seats in parliament ahead of the right-wing eurosceptic ODS, the anti-establishment Pirates, the far-right SPD and five other parties.

Although they will not enter into a formal coalition with ANO, parties including the Pirates, the SPD and the far-left Communists -- both staunchly anti-EU -- have signalled support for Babis's bid to govern the Czech Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.6 million people.

A 63-year-old Slovak-born farm products and media tycoon, Babis must clinch the support of a majority of all MPs present to win a confidence vote.

Babis himself has said that he is in no rush to form a government, but he added he had already picked most of his ministers.

"I'm pondering industry and agriculture, otherwise it's complete," he said on Facebook.

If his cabinet fails to win a confidence vote, President Milos Zeman has said he will give political ally Babis a second chance.

Under the constitution, the president has two attempts to decide who will form the cabinet, leaving the third and final try to the speaker of parliament.

Focus on later rounds

Babis is now lobbying lawmakers to support ANO MP Radek Vondracek for the speaker's job, a move that would pave his way to a third confidence motion.

Parliament will pick the speaker during the inaugural session, which is expected to last several days.

"My guess is Babis will fail in the first round and then focus on the second," analyst Pavel Saradin from Palacky University in the eastern Czech city of Olomouc told AFP, adding that the mogul was keen to "put the other parties under pressure".

Should Babis ultimately fail to form a government, few parties would have the means to finance another election campaign in a snap poll.

"What is at stake are three attempts for Andrej Babis (to form a government), and the way things are, he will most likely get them,"Tomas Lebeda, another Palacky University analyst, told AFP.

Zeman, a 73-year-old pro-Russian, pro-Chinese and anti-immigration veteran leftwinger, himself faces a presidential election next January, competing for his second five-year term.

"The lengthy cabinet talks may also be due to the presidential election, with Babis waiting for the outcome," Saradin added.

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