Former Czech Prime Minister and presidential candidate Andrej Babis attends his trial for alleged EU subsidy fraud at the Municipal Court in Prague, Czech Republic, on January 4 2023. Picture: DAVID W CERNY/REUTERS
He has been a dominant force in Czech politics for a decade, first as finance minister and later as prime minister. Opposition parties unseated him in the 2021 election despite his ANO party winning most seats in parliament. Babis is accused of illegally tapping an EU subsidy, before he formed his ANO party in 2011, to build the Stork’s Nest conference centre near Prague by hiding his ownership in the project.
Polls show him losing in the second round of voting. Babis’s ANO still leads party polls despite the conflict of interest allegations against him.