State Fund ready to halt Agrofert subsidy applications until legal certainty ensured

The State Agricultural Intervention Fund (SZIF) is prepared to suspend the processing of subsidy applications from companies within the Agrofert holding if its owner—ANO party leader Andrej Babiš—becomes prime minister while remaining in a conflict of interest, SZIF Director General Petr Dlouhý told the Czech News Agency. According to Dlouhý, any suspension would remain in place until the fund could be certain that granting such subsidies would not violate the law.

Andrej Babiš has promised to explain publicly how he intends to address the conflict of interest before being appointed prime minister but has so far made no move to do so.