Final Word from Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Today's meeting at the Castle between Pres. Petr Pavel and ANO Chair Andrej Babiš about the new coalition's policy statement and Babiš's possible conflict of interest will either avert a potentially serious government crisis or set one in motion. Only Babiš and his lawyers seem to know what the plan is regarding Agrofert, so the outcome of the meeting is difficult to predict. One thing is sure, though, and that's that a good crisis shouldn't be allowed to go to waste, as Winston Churchill and others have said. The Czech Republic is a nation of conflicts of interest, many of which intentionally go undiscussed. Where else, for example, can the vice chair of the main medical insurer go on public radio and not be asked about the police raid at the institution three days before? Or where citizens have very little idea how their former PMs make their living? Babiš's conflict is perhaps one of the biggest imaginable, but the principle is the same in other cases too, and it would be statesmanlike of the president to mention this. [ Czech Republic not discussed concealed VZP Miroslav Kalousek Miroslav Topolánek Jiří Rusnok Petr Nečas Bohuslav Sobotka prime minister media Czech Radio ]