Background and career
Andrej Babiš (born 2 September 1954) is a Czech politician and businessman who has been the prime minister of the Czech Republic since December 2025, having previously served as prime minister from 2017 to 2021. Prior to that, he was the minister of finance and deputy prime minister from 2014 to 2017. A populist, Babiš has led the ANO 2011 political party since he founded it in 2012. Born in Bratislava, Babiš moved to the Czech Republic in the early 1990s. During a lengthy business career, he became one of the wealthiest individuals in the Czech Republic, with an estimated net worth of about $4.04 billion according to Bloomberg in November 2020. In September 2026, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $4.2 billion. Babiš made most of his fortune as the founder and owner of Agrofert, one of the country's largest holding companies. On 6 December 2017, Babiš was appointed prime minister of the Czech Republic, after ANO won the largest share of the vote in the 2017 Czech parliamentary election. When he took office, he was the oldest and wealthiest person ever to become Czech prime minister, as well as the first from a party other than the Civic Democratic Party or the Social Democratic Party. Additionally, Babiš was also the first prime minister born outside the Czech Republic, the first to hold dual citizenship, and the first whose native language is not Czech. Babiš's political allies during his time as prime minister were President Miloš Zeman, the Czech Social Democratic Party, and the Communist Party. His administration raised the retirement age and reduced pensions, while increasing child tax credits and the salaries of senior politicians. Major political events of his term include the expulsion of over 80 Russian diplomats and resident spies following the disclosure of Russian involvement in the 2014 Vrbětice explosions, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed around 35,000 people in the Czech Republic, triggering criticism of the government's response. His time in office was also marked by legal disputes with the European Commission due to accusations of conflict of interest and allegations of EU subsidy fraud. Babiš was succeeded as prime minister by Petr Fiala on 17 December 2021, following the 2021 election. Babiš was a candidate in the 2023 Czech presidential election and lost in the second round to Petr Pavel. He led his ANO movement into the 2025 election as its nominee for prime minister, in which the party placed first with 34.5% of the votes. On 27 October 2025, he was formally tasked by President Pavel to form a government. After forming a coalition government with SPD and a new right-wing party Motorists for Themselves (AUTO), Babiš was appointed prime minister on 9 December. His cabinet took power on 15 December 2025. Following allegations that an anonymous company he controlled unlawfully received a €2M subsidy from the European Regional Development Fund, Babiš was investigated by both the Czech police and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) from 2015 to 2017. He was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and formally charged on 9 October 2017. He was acquitted of the charges in January 2023, but the verdict was overturned and remanded in November 2023. Babiš has received sustained criticism over a number of issues, including alleged conflicts of interest, his past role in the StB, and allegations of intimidating political opponents. Babiš remains one of the most popular and divisive politicians in the Czech Republic.
Andrej Babiš was born on 2 September 1954 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), to a Slovak father from Hlohovec and a Carpathian German mother from Yasinia, now Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine. His father, a diplomat and member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), represented Czechoslovakia during the negotiation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Geneva and as a consultant at the United Nations. On his mother's side, he is the nephew of Ervin and Viera Scheibner. Babiš spent part of his childhood abroad and was educated in Paris and Geneva. He continued his studies at a gymnasium and the University of Economics in Bratislava, where he studied international trade. In 1978, after graduating, he joined the Slovak state-controlled international trading company Chemapol Bratislava, which later became Petrimex. In 1985, he was appointed as the organisation's representative in Morocco. He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1980. During the 1980s, he was an agent for the Czechoslovak state security service (StB). Babiš denies knowingly being an agent of StB, but his legal challenges against the Slovak National Memory Institute were unsuccessful. It is alleged that he was also in contact with the Soviet KGB.
Babiš returned to Czechoslovakia from Morocco in 1991, after the Velvet Revolution, and settled in the Czech Republic after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. In January 1993, Babiš became managing director of Agrofert, a newly established Petrimex subsidiary operating in the Czech Republic. He had suggested establishing Agrofert while he was a director at Petrimex, during which time Agrofert was recapitalised by OFI, a company of unknown ownership based in Baar, Switzerland, which took control of Agrofert from Petrimex. Petrimex later fired Babiš and unsuccessfully sued him for allowing the firm's stake in Agrofert to be diluted. Soon thereafter, Babiš emerged as the 100% owner of Agrofert. The source of the initial financing for Babiš's takeover of Agrofert from Petrimex remained undisclosed as of the start of 2016, although Babiš has said that the money came from his former schoolmates in Switzerland. Babiš gradually developed Agrofert into one of the largest companies in the country, starting as a wholesale and trading firm, but later acquiring various agricultural, food processing, and chemical companies. In 2011, Agrofert Holding consisted of more than 230 companies, mainly in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany. It is the fourth largest company in the Czech Republic by revenue, exceeding CZK 117 billion. The history of Agrofert, detailed in a book by the journalist Tomáš Pergler, is closely linked to its control of the Czech petrochemicals industry. One reviewer of the book said the account "captures much of what has led Czechs to the conviction that they live in a corrupted, clientist country – and (paradoxically) then to vote for the ANO movement." Upon entering politics, Babiš resigned as CEO, but nevertheless remained sole owner until February 2017, when he was legally obliged to put his companies in a trust to remain as Minister of Finance. While Babiš's business activities initially focused mainly on agriculture, he later acquired a large empire of media companies. In 2013, Agrofert purchased the company MAFRA, publisher of two of the biggest Czech newspapers, Lidové noviny and Mladá fronta DNES, and operator of the Óčko television company. Agrofert also owned Radio Impuls, the most listened to radio station in the Czech Republic (as of late 2014). These acquisitions have led critics to question Babiš's political motives, amid accusations that he was amassing too much power, and that the media outlets he controls publish sympathetic coverage of him. As of 15 October 2025, Babiš is again the sole owner of Agrofert. On 20 February 2026, Babiš transferred ownership of the company to the private RSVP Trust fund.
In 2011, Babiš founded his party, ANO, "to fight corruption and other ills in the country's political system." The party contested the parliamentary elections in October 2013 and emerged as the second largest party, with 47 seats (of 200) in the Chamber of Deputies. The American political consulting firm, Penn Schoen Berland, was credited with the party's successful result.
In the subsequent coalition government, formed of the Social Democrats, ANO, and the Christian Democrats, Babiš served as the Minister of Finance. During his tenure in this role, Babiš introduced controversial policies such as electronic registration of sales, known as EET, proposed reverse charging of value-added tax, and VAT control statement for companies. His critics claimed he was tightening regulations on small and medium-sized enterprises and sole proprietorships while turning a blind eye to big corporations, to the benefit of his own Agrofert holding. During this time, he stated many times that he would like to be the next prime minister if ANO led the government. In May 2015, after the government's decision to extend reduced taxation of biofuels (a segment of the fuel market controlled significantly by companies in the Agrofert portfolio), the opposition initiated a vote of no confidence against the cabinet. On 26 May 2015, while speaking to the Chamber of Deputies, Babiš said that he was forced to enter politics because of "corrupted opposition" (referring to ODS) that "created him". In November 2016, Babiš criticized alleged links among CEFC China Energy, the Czech Social Democratic Party, and Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, saying that CEFC's focus on private Czech companies "brings no yield to the Czech Republic."
In September 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Babiš called for NATO intervention against human trafficking in the Mediterranean. After talks on the migrant crisis with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Babiš said that "NATO is not interested in refugees, although Turkey, a NATO member, is their entrance gate to Europe and smugglers operate on Turkish territory." Babiš rejected the European Union's refugee quotas, saying: "I will not accept refugee quotas [for the Czech Republic]. ... We must react to the needs and fears of the citizens of our country. We must guarantee the security of Czech citizens. Even if we are punished by sanctions." After the 2016 Berlin truck attack, he said that "unfortunately... [Angela Merkel's "open-door" migration] policy is responsible for this dreadful act. It was she who let migrants enter Germany and the whole of Europe in uncontrolled waves, without papers, therefore without knowing who they really are."
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
