Final Word from Tuesday, December 3, 2024

PM Petr Fiala said recently that he can't be insulted by someone who isn't even able to put four sentences together that make sense, meaning Andrej Babiš, but the reality is that it's sometimes an advantage for Babiš that his words are often enigmatic. Babiš announced yesterday that he's dissolving one of the trust funds that owns Agrofert as a way to "organize things for the future with my family in mind, in case perhaps something should happen to me." He added that, "If we succeed in the elections next year and I form the government, I couldn't do it anymore." This led to all kinds of speculation about the real meaning. Does Babiš plans to reorganize Agrofert? Leave politics and return to business? Pass on the business to his children? Any of these things, however, could be done within the current trust-fund structure. A nightmare scenario for Babiš's political rivals would be if he decided to divest Agrofert between now and elections and to pocket a multibillion sum in euros. That would remove any leverage the EU had over him and allow him to concentrate on accumulating power. But who knows what Babiš actually meant. [ Czech Republic sell comprehensible AB Private Trust ]