Page 49 - bneMagazine March 2023 oil discount

bne March 2023 Central Europe I 49
Schadl had earlier allegedly arranged the university exam of Nagy.
In one of the first wiretapped recordings, an associate of Schadl’s associates claims to have talked to "Toni, Barbi and Adam" about a 35-year concession tender. The government had announced a tender to hand over the management of about 2,000 km of motorways and public roads to a 35-year concession contract in mid-2021. The winning bidder was the consortium led by private equity fund Themis, linked
to Orban’s childhood friend Lorinc
Meszaros, Hungary's most powerful oligarch.
Local media linked the surnames of the people in the short conversation to Rogan, his young wife Barbara and Adam Nagy.
Observers say it is very unlikely that the corruption case could be linked to people higher in the cabinet such as Rogan as the prosecution closed down the investigation in time.
It is also very unlikely that compromising material compiled by
the National Defence Service that might implicate Rogan's possible role could surface as it is Rogan who has overseen the operation of all secret services since May 2022.
The liberal Momentum party has turned to the police to investigate what they call selective and politically self- censoring practices of the prosecution.
Chief prosecutor Peter Polt, a former Fidesz MP, is widely accused of covering up corruption scandals close to the ruling party and its business elite.
Pavel wins landslide victory in Czech presidential election
Robert Anderson in Prague
Former Czech general Petr Pavel has won a landslide victory in the second round of the Czech presidential election over billionaire populist Andrej Babis.
The election of Pavel by 58.3% to 41.7% – a record margin – should bolster the country’s centre-right government, which had endorsed him. However, the election has also further polarised society as the government wrestles with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and strongly backs Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
Pavel – whose slogan was “Let's return order and peace to the Czech Republic" – is expected to work co-operatively with the government, rather than pursue his own agenda, as current President Milos Zeman has done in the past by forging close links with China and Russia.
The election of Pavel – the country’s first non-political president – will also mark a clean break with the country’s last
two presidents, former premiers Vaclav Klaus and Milos Zeman, and a return to the liberal values of Vaclav Havel, the dissident who became president after the collapse of Communism.
In a symbolic move, Pavel's victory celebration was attended by progressive President Zuzana Caputova of neighbouring Slovakia, who made
a surprise trip for the occasion. The two presidents are already planning a joint trip to Kyiv shortly after Pavel's inauguration.
In a tweet on January 28, Babis thanked his 2.4mn voters (in a country of 10.5mn people) for a "famous result". But his crushing defeat by 960,000 votes
is a severe blow for the 68-year-old opposition leader and agro-chemical
tycoon, who also lost power at the October 2021 general election. It will raise questions whether he will stay in politics until the 2025 election.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala was quick to congratulate Pavel as well as to denounce Babis for the style of his campaign. "This is also Andrej Babiš's third significant defeat. And it looks like we are witnessing the beginning of the end of his political era in our country. But let's not be mistaken,
it can still be long and unpleasant," he said.
Pavel – whose slogan was “Let's return order and peace to the Czech Republic" – is expected to work co- operatively with the government. / Petr Pavel (Twitter)
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