Andrej Babiš re-elected ANO party leader

Multi-millionaire entrepreneur and Finance Minister Andrej Babiš was unanimously re-elected leader of the ANO party in Prague on Saturday. Mr. Babiš, who ran for the post unchallenged, joked that the victory was “most unexpected”, saying that the single missing vote in his favour was his own. Three candidates for the post of first deputy chair withdrew their candidacy at the eleventh hour to ease the way for Mr. Babiš’ favourite - the head of ANO’s deputies’ group in the lower house Jaroslav Faltýnek. He also ran unchallenged and was elected by 153 out of 176 votes.

In an opening address to the conference, Mr. Babiš took a swipe at his own coalition partners saying the Social Democrats had a “controversial past” and criticizing the party for irresponsible and overly generous spending of public funds. He spoke out in favour of a majority election system, saying that what the country primarily needed was an action-capable administration which would tackle the problems at hand. He hinted that this was difficult due to the need to find consensus within the coalition and said he expected growing friction over policy issues ahead of next year’s regional elections.