The tangled affairs of the probable next Czech prime minister

ANDREJ BABIS says the political establishment is conspiring to keep him from power. A billionaire agro-industrialist and media mogul, Mr Babis is the frontrunner to become the Czech Republic’s prime minister after next month’s general election. However, on September 6th parliament voted to strip him of immunity from prosecution as an MP, amid fraud allegations from the police. “You won’t frighten me. You won’t stop me. You won’t get rid of me,” the self-styled outsider bellowed from the dais before losing his immunity by 123 votes to just four.

Meanwhile, audio recordings of him speaking coarsely about how, for instance, he might use his newspapers to attack rivals, have been posted anonymously online. There is even a phone app to help shoppers avoid foods produced by Agrofert, Mr Babis’s conglomerate, which has 250 companies and 33,000 employees.