Or why an unelected analyst should not become finance minister of a democratic state.



Spot the next finance minister: Andrej Babis and his analysts.

Andrej Babis says ANO 2011 will not enter a coalition government unless it nominates the post of finance minister. At the same time, he is resisting to take the job himself and is pushing the candidature of various macroeconomic analysts, including Ales Michl, who works at a German bank in Prague.

Babis insists on having control over the most powerful executive office in the country and yet he wants to fill this most political of top political posts with an unelected talking head with no political power of his own.

If Michl or Petr Zahradnik or someone like them, were to become finance minister, and Babis the deputy prime minister responsible for coordinating the economic policy of the country, as now seems likely, what, then, will be the differences between them? The answer is none, at least none that will last long.

The moment the 'expert' finance minister goes against the wishes of the deputy prime minister, upon whose political patronage he depends completely, he will be replaced with another, more agreeable 'expert'. This is the great advantage of 'experts': having no political power base of their own, they are easily replaced. Even Babis's employee, Jaroslav Faltynek, would be a more suitable candidate for finance minister - at least he was elected.

Of course, Babis is simply trying to avoid the conflicts of interest that will overwhelm him as the absolute owner of Agrofert and Mafra if he were to become finance minister. He wants to have it both ways. Making someone like Michl his proxy at the finance ministry is a ruse to allow Babis to weild power without the burden of formal responsibility.

Another way of looking at this is the way Babis himself looks at it. He sees the role of a coordinating deputy prime minister for economic policy as if it were the same as a corporate CEO who runs various departments or markets. "For me the priority is deputy prime minister for economy, because it is similar to how I run Agrofert. I run it through people in charge of various sectors," said Babis. In his understanding, the finance minister is merely a head of department. He will be held responsible if he fails to meet his targets, but the real power will remain with Babis, as the CEO. This is nothing but an absurd and dangerous attempt to 'manage' a democratic state as if it was a business corporation.

Bohuslav Sobotka is quite right to insist that the leader of ANO take a seat in the cabinet. But he should insist as well that Babis himself becomes the finance minister, and in this way make him truly accountable for the immense power that one million voters have now placed in his hands.

In this sense, the news this morning that a former StB officer is claiming that Babis's StB files were falsified, though dubious, is welcome: It makes it that much harder for Babis to stay out of the government.