On Tuesday 2 May, the Czech Prime Minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, announced his resignation and that of his cabinet, after tension mounted between him and his finance minister, Andrej Babiš, whom he suspects of tax fraud.
“I will soon, probably this week, tender my resignation to President Miloš Zeman. It is unacceptable that Babiš remains in the finance minister post”, Sobotka announced (our translation). Babiš, a billionaire businessman, is the head of the centrist movement ANO and tipped by several observers to be a possible next Prime Minister.
For several weeks, Sobotka has been questioning how Babiš acquired the debt instruments of his group Agrofert for a sum in the region of €55 million, the origin of this money and suspicions of tax evasion surrounding the transaction.
“The rules must apply to everybody. Minister Babiš has an enormous conflict of interests”, Sobotka said.
His resignation will lead to the formation of a new government supported by the centre-left coalition currently in power, but without Babiš, or to a snap general election, according to the news agency Reuters. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)