Czech government resigns as PM fights corruption allegations

Move after no confidence vote deepens political crisis after Andrej Babiš was accused of abusing EU subsidy scheme

Robert Tait in Prague
Wed 17 Jan 2018 15.13 GMT

The Czech Republic’s minority government has resigned, plunging the country into deeper political turmoil, as its recently installed prime minister, Andrej Babiš, fights allegations that he abused an EU subsidy programme a decade ago.

Wednesday’s resignation – a month after Babiš’ appointment – came a day after the government resoundingly lost a vote of confidence it had to win to stay in office.

It will continue as a caretaker administration while the Czech president, Miloš Zeman, decides what to do.

Zeman – a populist who has earned notoriety for xenophobic statements – had pledged to reappoint Babiš, a close ally, in the event of Tuesday’s confidence vote defeat, which had been widely anticipated.

But that promise may become meaningless because Zeman himself is now in political jeopardy after a worse than expected result in last weekend’s presidential election left him facing a nail-biting run-off against liberal opponent Jiří Drahoš next week.

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