Page 79 - bne magazine November 2021_20211104 uzbekistan risding

bne November 2021
Opinion 79
The 2019 investigation by Aktualne.cz established the involvement of payments from Home Credit in the PR push, but as Lukas Valasek, lead author of the investigation and editor with Aktualne.cz, pointed out to bne Intellinews, “Info.cz regularly published unmarked PR articles”. The extent of political goals behind this is difficult to measure.
Kretinsky’s remarkable rise has occurred against the backdrop of ODS-led cabinets. One of Info.cz’s podcasts is hosted by Mirek Topolanek, a former ODS prime minister brought down by a corruption scandal who then served subsequently in EPH’s management. He frequently targets the EU and its green policies, referring to the EU as the "green Taliban" in one of his latest episodes.
Depiction of the EU as having unrealistic green policies
or even totalitarian tendencies is where the Eurosceptic narratives popularised by Info.cz conflate with the more aggressive statements towards the EU made by Andrej Babis or his populist ally, President Zeman.
“It comes as no surprise that Topolanek now works for Kretinsky – I call it the syndrome of revolving doors”, says Patocka, pointing to the days when CEZ management, lobbyist Vladimir Johanes and Topolanek vacationed together in Tuscany.
Kiss the ring
The ODS – whose last three governments all collapsed in corruption scandals – is now under the leadership of Petr Fiala, who has pledged to drive the shadowy lobbyists out of the party. The ODS is part of the centre-right SPOLU formation, bringing together Christian Democrats and TOP09 as one of the main challengers to the ANO-led hegemony of Czech politics.
Though the ODS remains hostile to green ideas, TOP09
as well as the Pirate party have moved to embrace them. The Pirates are leaders of the second opposition coalition, and they sit with the Green group in the European Parliament and have a big following among young people.
If the two opposition coalitions – which have pledged to govern together – win this weekend’s election, there is
a chance that this cosy consensus between politicians and the energy lobby will end.
However, politicians such as Radek Vondracek (ANO) and Alexandr Vondra (ODS) have publicly raised the prospect of post-election arrangements between ANO and SPOLU. It is also rumored in the circles close to SPOLU that informal talks with ANO have already taken place, something which leaders of SPOLU and ANO deny.
Such an arrangement would not only suit President Zeman’s long-term stance of supporting ANO, but it would effectively marry ANO’s open anti-EU populism with the ODS’s more subtle Euroscepticism.
An ANO-ODS configuration has already been evident in they way the two parties voted together on some key legislation in the past year. These include tax cuts last December and the blocking of more substantial reforms to the insolvency system.
It is also rumoured that Kretinsky’s media has been backing Babis as part of a behind-the-scenes deal between the two oligarchs. Babis reputedly enjoys making his fellow oligarchs come on bended knee to “kiss the ring”. As revealed when news website Seznam Zpravy got hold of his diary, Babis’ consigliere Jaroslav Faltynek – former Agrofert CEO and currently leader of the ANO party in the lower house –
is kept very busy holding secret meetings with businessmen.
Opposition parties and NGOs have criticised Babis for allegedly permitting the creeping "oligarchisation" of the state, a process they argue will only accelerate if he is re-elected.
ANO-led state institutions such as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Environment have been lenient, to say the least, in collecting pollution fees from EP Industries’ waste management business AVE.
Caslav municipality took AVE to court for allegedly providing false data about the landfill AVE operates near Caslav, which it claimed caused the municipality a loss of nearly CZK1bn in pollution fees, and a further CZK4 billion CZK for the State Environmental Fund. Currently police are investigating AVE CZ in connection with these claims.
This case allegedly prompted legislative amendments that absolve landfill operators of similar claims. Kretinsky is reported to have lobbied to make the waste collection bill weaker and ANO and CSSD MPs then helped push the changes through. bne IntelliNews approached EPH for a comment on this article but received no response by deadline time.
Coincidentally, Kretinsky’s media has swung behind Babis. On the Monday before the election Blesk released a major interview with Babis that gave him a chance to praise his government and avoided any criticism of its mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. The soft interview also allowed the prime minister to present an unchallenged account of why he failed to declare his property acquisitions on the French Riviera through offshore structures, as the Pandora Papers revealed.
With the prime minister’s Mafra media loudly backing him, and the quiet support of Kretinsky’s CNC media, it is not surprising that Babis has been able to dominate this election campaign. Whether the energy lobby will continue to dominate the country’s climate policy will only be seen after the post-election negotiations have been completed.
Albin Sybera is a Czech freelance journalist based in Slovenia specialising in Czech media discourse, business and politics.
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