Czech president appoints billionaire Andrej Babis as new prime minister

PRAGUE- Czech President Petr Pavel appointed the billionaire leader of the populist ANO party, Andrej Babis, as prime minister on Tuesday in a ceremony shown live on television.

Babis, whose ANO won an October 3-4 parliamentary election, will take over from a centre-right government after his full cabinet is appointed, which is expected later this month.

Babis, 71, returns to power after four years in opposition, during which he shifted from the liberal centre toward European fringe right forces, joining the Patriots for Europe in the European Parliament.

His cabinet will include the far-right, anti-EU and pro-Russian SPD party and the Motorists for Themselves party whose main agenda is opposing the EU's climate policies.

Babis has pledged to cut military aid to Ukraine from the national budget and has said the new government may end the Czech-run ammunition initiative which procures large-calibre ammunition for Ukraine from around the world.

Babis has said the scheme was not transparent and overpriced but has not taken a clear stance on the future of the project, which has strong backing from the president.

Pavel appointed his new prime minister after Babis said last week he would shift his main asset Agrofert, a group of over 200 companies in chemicals, food, farming and other businesses, to a trust structure to resolve a conflict of interest he would have in office.

Jan Lopatka/Reuters