Czech President Petr Pavel and Foreign Minister Petr Macinka will go to the Munich Security Conference (MSC), which will take place this weekend. The Czech government approved it on Monday. However, Macinka emphasized that they will not go together or even meet there to calm the situation, which escalated after the president published Macinka’s text messages in late January and accused him of attempted blackmail. At the press conference after the government meeting in Prague, the head of diplomacy noted that he would not have time for a meeting with Pavlo in Munich. Last week, he said that his ministry would ignore the president, reports TASR correspondent in Prague.
- President Pavel and Minister Macinka will go to the Munich conference.
- They won’t go together and won’t even meet there.
- Macinka stated that he has a busy schedule with his partners.
- Deputy Prime Minister Schillerová emphasized the interest in the unified approach of the Czech Republic.
- Speaker of the House Okamura calls for unity in foreign policy.
“I have a relatively busy schedule there. The interest of foreign partners in bilateral meetings is greater than the capacity. I’m not going there to negotiate with Czech representatives, but with foreign partners. Even if it sounds terrible, I probably won’t find time for Mr. President there. But it’s not because I don’t want to. I believe he also has a busy schedule,” said Macinka. “We will not go together. I will go there in a car with an internal combustion engine,” he responded to the question of whether the politicians would go to the conference together.
Macink’s ironic remarks
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš did not speak at the press conference because he is on a foreign trip to Germany. He was represented by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alena Schillerová, who tried to suppress several of Macinka’s ironic comments immediately. “As I read the words of Mr. Vice Prime Minister Macinka, there is no danger at the Munich conference. We are concerned with a common cause, the Czech Republic. And surely all the actors will act consistently there,” she said, recalling Babiš’s words that the dispute between the Motorists and the Castle, which arose because Filip Turk was not appointed as Minister of the Environment, should be calmed down.
Opinion of the Speaker of the Chamber
The chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, Tomio Okamura, also commented on who should represent the Czech Republic in Munich. He declared that it would be ideal for a government representative to go there for the Czech Republic, because foreign policy is created by the government. “I would really hate it if someone – and it doesn’t matter who the official representatives are – promotes a different policy abroad than is in line with the government’s program statement,” he said after the coalition council meeting, which took place before the government meeting.
