Czech president Petr Pavel announced last Thursday night that he intends to re-name prime minister of the country, the trumpeter billionaire Andrej Babis, after the stakeholder promised to transfer the activities of his business group to an independent structure in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

Babis, 71, who had already held office from 2017 to 2021, was given a mandate to form a government by President Pavel in early November, a month after his ANO party won the October parliamentary elections.

“I have decided to name him prime minister on Tuesday 9 December at 09:00” (10:00 GMT), Pavel said via X. “In this way, I respect the results of the elections (…) and the course of negotiations to form a coalition government,” he added.

ANO came first in the elections, but did not secure a sufficient number of seats in parliament to form an independent government, which prompted it to strike a deal with the SPD and The Voice of the Motorists on 3 November.

However, his final appointment ran up against Pavel’s demand to find a solution to prevent the risk of conflicts of interest due to the businessman’s interests and activities.

The billionaire, head of the Agrofert group (chemicals, agriculture, etc.), has the seventh largest fortune in the Czech Republic of 10.9 million inhabitants, an EU and NATO member state, according to a ranking by Forbes magazine.

President Pavel will name and swear in the government later, as required by the Czech constitution.

Andrei Babis promised during the election campaign to increase social benefits, reduce Prague’s aid to Ukraine and put “the Czech Republic first.”

His return to power could mean rebuilding an alliance with Hungary and Slovakia.

Babis co-founded, with Viktor Orban, the eurosceptic parliamentary group Patriots for Europe in the EP.

He has, however, rejected the idea of organising a referendum on the Czech Republic’s withdrawal from the European Union, which the SPD is calling for.