Czech President Miloš Zeman on Wednesday fired his controversial finance minister, Andrej Babiš, putting an end to a government crisis that threatened to shatter the ruling coalition government just months before scheduled legislative elections. [...]
Zeman acted nearly two weeks after Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka demanded that the president sack Babiš, whom he accused of tax evasion and other financial improprieties. After seemingly incriminating audio tapes were posted on the internet, Babiš was also accused of trying to manipulate the news in the two national dailies he owns through a trust. [...]
Pilný is a member of Babiš’s ANO party, which rules in a three-party coalition with Sobotka’s Social Democrats and the centrist Christian Democrats. He is widely regarded as something of a political maverick and is not seen as being close to his predecessor and party chairman. He was the head of Microsoft’s Czech operations in the 1990s and, until his promotion to minister, chairman of the economic affairs committee in the lower house of parliament.
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