Okamura backs Babiš for ministerial post

Newly-elected MP Tomio Okamura, the head of the parliamentary group Dawn of Direct Democracy, has said fellow politician and ANO 2011 leader Andrej Babiš should be the country's next finance minister regardless of whether he failed or passed a screening law blocking those who cooperated with the communist era secret police, the StB, from holding public office. Speaking on a TV debate programme, Mr Okamura stressed that almost 20 percent of the electorate voted for ANO 2011 and that voters "expected" its leader to take up a ministerial post. Mr Babiš, a billionaire magnate, is listed in Slovakia as having collaborated with the secret police under the former regime. He has categorically denied such cooperation and has gone to court over the issue.