PRAGUE (AP) — Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has accepted a proposal for a new finance minister, paving the way for a resolution to the country's latest political crisis.

Sobotka agreed Wednesday to ask President Milos Zeman to make lawmaker Ivan Pilny, the former head of Microsoft's operations in the Czech Republic, the next finance minister.

Sobotka had asked Zeman to fire the current finance minister, Andrej Babis, one of the country's richest people, over unexplained business dealings.

Babis denied wrongdoing, initially saying he wouldn't resign. Last week he proposed his deputy as a replacement, a move the prime minister rejected.

Babis then suggested Pilny, a lawmaker for his centrist ANO movement, on Wednesday. Sobotka agreed with the recommendation.

ANO is favored to win an October parliamentary election well ahead of Sobotka's leftist Social Democrats.