Billboards targeting billionaire Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis have popped up across the country this week, showing portraits of citizens expressing “shame” over fraud charges he faces.<\/p>\n
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The high-profile “I am ashamed of my prime minister” campaign was dreamed up by advertising executive Jaroslav Polacek.<\/p>\n
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Billionaire Babis, the second wealthiest person in the country, faces criminal charges over alleged EU subsidy fraud stretching back a decade.<\/p>\n
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A leaked EU report from last November suggested a conflict of interest between his role as head of the Czech government and EU subsidies that went to his businesses.<\/p>\n
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He has dismissed all the allegations as part of a smear campaign.<\/p>\n
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But nearly 100 Czechs, including celebrities and ordinary citizens, have appeared on the billboards.<\/p>\n
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“The degree of shame caused by the prime minister is so high that it requires a reaction,” Polacek told AFP, who plans to take the campaign online.<\/p>\n
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He got the idea after friends abroad asked him to explain why Babis could serve as PM when facing corruption charges.<\/p>\n
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“Friends asked me if we’re a banana republic,” Polacek said. “I wasn’t angry, I felt shame.”<\/p>\n
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PRodukujeme, the agency he owns, has covered the printing and graphics, but the billboards themselves are paid for by the protesters who appear on them.<\/p>\n
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Popular rock singer Krystof Michal spent 175 euros ($200) to take part.<\/p>\n
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“I wanted to step out of my social bubble, to make my stance visible to people other than my Facebook friends,” Michal, frontman of the Portless rock group, told AFP.<\/p>\n
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“I don’t think he is the right person to be prime minister, even though the nation has elected him which is something we must respect,” he said.<\/p>\n
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Babis, whose populist ANO movement tops opinion polls, has invited his billboard critics to meet him.<\/p>\n
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“I’ll buy everyone a cup of coffee and persuade them that there’s nothing to be ashamed of and that I represent the Czech Republic well across the globe,” he said.<\/p>\n
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But Michal has turned him down.<\/p>\n
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“The media outcome will be that the good prime minister has met the hysterical crowd so he will abuse it in the end,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"