Billionaire businessman Andrej Babiš and his party currently hold a commanding lead in the polls days before a major election in the Czech Republic that could propel Babiš into power as the country’s next prime minister.
Babiš, an entrepreneur who made his fortune in agribusiness and has expanded his empire to include newspapers, television and restaurants, founded the anti-establishment ANO party and was the country’s finance minister and a deputy prime minister until recently.
ANO, an acronym representing ‘Action of Dissatisfied Citizens’ but also the Czech word for ‘yes,’ has dominated the polls for months, holding steady above 30% popularity with the next closest party far behind at less than 14%. Voting will take place on October 20th.
Babiš is considered a populist-centrist, and is strongly opposed to open borders and the EU’s current immigration policies, having stated, “I have stopped believing in multiculturalism.”
His position on ‘refugee resettlement’ quotas imposed by Brussels on EU member states mirrors that of his contemporaries in Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.
“I will not accept refugee quotas. The situation has changed. We see how migrants react in Europe. There is a dictator in Turkey,” he tweeted in 2016. “We must react to the needs and fears of the citizens of our country. We must guarantee the security of Czech citizens. Even if we are punished by sanctions.”
Nebudu respektovat kvóty. Situace se změnila. V Evropě vidíme reakce migrantů. V Turecku je diktátor. https://t.co/nrVmurmXTN
— Andrej Babiš (@AndrejBabis) August 3, 2016
Musíme reagovat na potřeby a obavy občanů své země, Musíme se postarat o bezpečnost občanů ČR. I za cenu sankcí.
— Andrej Babiš (@AndrejBabis) August 3, 2016
More recently, Babiš reinforced these assertions with stronger rhetoric denouncing the population replacement taking place across Europe.
“We have to fight for what our ancestors built here,” Babis said. “If there will be more Muslims than Belgians in Brussels, that’s their problem. I don’t want that here. They won’t be telling us who should live here.”
Babiš is compared regularly to President Donald Trump, and with good reason as the similarities are plentiful – including the way they are treated by the establishment.
Globalist mouthpiece The Economist has written multiple hit pieces on the “paper tiger,” attempting to paint him as a scandal-ridden businessman with “disdain for political dialogue and democratic checks and balances,” while begrudgingly admitting the “deft campaigner” has a strong track record as a politician – especially in his handling of the nation’s economy.
“The Czech Republic ran a budget surplus last year. Its unemployment rate of 3.7% is the lowest in the EU, and GDP grew by an estimated 2.5% in 2016, well above the European average,” they wrote of his achievements as finance minister.
The establishment class has done their best to drive the ‘outsider’ out of politics, even targeting him with legislation colloquially referred to as “Lex Babiš” (the Babiš’ Law) designed to create a conflict of a interest at the intersection of his business and political pursuits, but Babiš placed his holdings in trust to comply with the new regulations and continues to push forward towards a position of national leadership.
Babiš is staunchly opposed to the Czech Republic adopting the euro as their currency, saying, “Everybody knows it’s bankrupt. It’s about our sovereignty. I want the Czech koruna, and an independent central bank. I don’t want another issue that Brussels would be meddling with.”
“The biggest added value of the European Union is the national identity of each country,” he also said. “A strong Europe thanks to strong states — that’s logical, no?”
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