Evil Person of the Year

If there was a Darth Vader of Czech business and politics this year, it was lawyer Radek Pokorný. He might have had strong competition on the Dark Side from Andrej Babiš, Zdeněk Bakala, Petr Kellner, Bohuslav Sobotka, Miloš Zeman and a few others, but no one so symbolized the behind-the-scenes abuses of power that come from being the best friend of the PM, a cog of a main political party, and a lobbyist with private and political interests everywhere. With Babiš, many of the abuses are published directly in the Collection of Laws for everyone to see. Pokorný essentially runs the PM but operates with minimal public oversight. Worst of all, he has enlisted an array of institutions to help him cover up and justify his evil deeds, including the PM's office, Agrarian Chamber, Arbitration Court, Bison & Rose, Chamber of Public Contract Administrators, Czech Chamber of Commerce, ČEZ, Economia publishers, EY, ÚOHS antitrust office, Weinhold Legal and of course ČSSD itself. May the force to break this chain be with all of those involved in 2016.