Final Word from Thursday, June 23, 2016

Agrofert is a sprawling conglomerate of more than 250 companies, but all lines on the organizational chart lead to Andrej Babiš. This is a big advantage in business in terms of decision making and accountability, but a disadvantage in politics, because it's so easy to map and quantify the conflicts of interest and criminal activity. Babiš's main political rival, ČSSD, is also a commercial entity, but it's much more difficult to pin down. Appian, Bison & Rose, CEFC, ČEZ, Cíl, Czech Railways, Czech TV, DP Praha, Economia, Eco-Wind, EPH, Eurovia, J&T, Pokorný Wagner, Škoda Transportation and dozens of other entities have lines running to ČSSD, but it's sometimes necessary to go to the Caymans to track them. No one really knows what Babiš means when he speaks of Milan Chovanec as the "godfather of godfathers." To even the odds in this battle for control of the country, Babiš needs to consolidate his vocabulary and start talking about ČSSD a.s. [Czech Republic Television interior minister Islands offshore]