The Constitutional Court ordered the government to ensure the participation of President Pavle at the NATO summit in Ankara. The quick verdict opens a new chapter in the dispute over the representation of the Czech Republic.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced that he accepts the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic to order the government to ensure the participation of President Petr Pavel at the NATO summit in Ankara in July, calling it unusually quick on the social network Facebook. President Pavel welcomed the verdict on the same platform, the TASR news agency reported.
On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court imposed a preliminary measure on the cabinet to ensure Pavlo’s presence at the upcoming meeting of the Alliance in Turkey. According to the president of the court, Josef Baxe, the plenum decided that due to the urgency of the situation, it will deal with the president’s competence lawsuit with priority.
Preliminary measure
However, according to the court, the actual proceedings on the jurisdictional action will take longer, so the judges granted Pavlov’s proposal to issue a preliminary measure. This one-time decision will allow the president to complete the mentioned foreign trip, while the Constitutional Court will issue the final verdict on who should generally represent the Czech Republic at NATO summits in the future.
Pavel stated on Facebook that, according to him, the decision of the ÚS reflects the previous practice and ensures the continuity of the Czech representation at the NATO summit. At the same time, he stated that the adopted measure should guarantee proper preparation and administrative handling of his participation in the Alliance’s negotiations.
Disputed representation of the state
The president filed a competence lawsuit after the government decided on Monday that he would not be part of the Czech delegation at the NATO summit in Ankara in July. He described this action of the cabinet as unprecedented and very unfortunate and reminded that he considers representing the state externally to be the constitutional authority of the head of state.
In response, Prime Minister Babiš stated that he respects Pavlo’s decision to turn to the Constitutional Court, but at the same time expressed the opinion that it is not correct if the highest constitutional officials file lawsuits against each other in the Constitutional Court.
