Czech President Petr Pavel will not be part of the Czech delegation at the July NATO summit in Ankara, Novinky.cz reported. This was announced by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who will represent the country at the meeting of the leaders of the alliance, after Monday’s government meeting.
- Czech President Petr Pavel will not attend the July NATO summit in Ankara.
- The Czech Republic will be represented at the NATO summit by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš as the main representative.
- Ministers Petr Macinka and Jaromír Zůna will travel to Ankara with the prime minister.
- Petr Pavel is considering a competent lawsuit to the Constitutional Court for his removal.
- Andrej Babiš refused joint participation and questioned the specific role of the president at the summit.
According to Noviniek.cz, Minister of Foreign Affairs Petr Macinka and Minister of Defense Jaromír Zůna are to travel to Turkey together with the Prime Minister. Unlike previous years, Pavel will be absent from the key summit of the alliance leaders.
Disputed delegation
The president has already announced in advance that if the cabinet makes it impossible for him to participate in the summit, he is ready to appeal to the Constitutional Court with a competent lawsuit. He insisted for a long time that he wanted to be personally present at the NATO meeting, Novinky.cz recalled.
According to the portal, Babiš explained at the press conference that this year’s summit will be different from the previous ones, and that is why the government decided differently than was the custom for the participation of Czech presidents. At the same time, he pointed out that the cabinet recently approved Pavel as the head of the Czech delegation at the session of the UN General Assembly in New York, and therefore sees no reason for the head of state to file a competent lawsuit.
The reaction of the Castle
The office of the president subsequently announced that Petr Pavl’s opinion on the government’s decision will be published on Tuesday morning.
According to Noviniek.cz, the dispute over who will represent the Czech Republic at the upcoming NATO summit has been going on between the president and the government for several weeks. Earlier, Babiš held the opinion that the head of the delegation should be the prime minister, not the president, as was the custom.
He stated that the prime minister could better explain to the allies the volume of Czech defense spending, which the president criticizes. According to the portal, Pavel was surprised by this procedure and suggested to the prime minister that they attend the summit together. However, Babiš responded that he could not imagine what role the president would play within the government delegation at the summit.
