President Petr Pavel met Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) in his office at Prague Castle this morning for talks. The meeting was prompted by the events of last week, when Pavel published text messages sent to his adviser by Foreign Minister Petr Macinka (Motorists). The president said he considered the messages to be extremely serious and an attempt at blackmail. He later accepted Babis’s proposal for a meeting.
Speaking after the meeting, Babis reiterated that he would like to calm the situation. “We have agreed together that we want the situation surrounding these various statements to calm down,” said Babis, reiterating that the government was not interested in any conflict.
The prime minister told reporters that the format of coordination meetings of top elected officials, as held at the president’s office in recent years, will not continue, and he intends to discuss foreign policy with President Petr Pavel alone at regular bilateral meetings. Pavel proposed that these meetings be held every four to six weeks or as needed.
The president will meet with other participants in these coordination meetings separately, Babis said, and foreign policy is also discussed within the coalition of ANO, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists.
“During the meeting, the president and prime minister agreed that they wanted to seek compromise solutions on various aspects of policy,” said the Presidential Office (KPR) in a statement. “The president is convinced that the prime minister will mitigate any disagreements with coalition partners and government ministers in order to not create situations that threaten Czech interests or weaken the Czech Republic’s position abroad.”
KPR said that the president and prime minister had agreed that it was not possible for the Foreign Ministry to cease cooperation and communication with the president, after Macinka declared at the weekend that he and his ministry would ignore the Presidential Office due to their current dispute. “Such a situation would limit the functioning of Czech foreign policy and important state functions,” said KPR.
The office also stated that Pavel is ready to appoint an environment minister, and is awaiting a new proposal for this post from the prime minister. Babis stated earlier that he did not expect Filip Turek, the Motorists’ controversial party chair and MP, to be appointed to the cabinet, and after his talks with the president, he declared the matter closed.
“The president reiterated that his decision not to appoint Filip Turek as minister was final,” said KPR. “He is convinced that the non-appointment is fully in line with the constitution and that he has sufficiently explained his position in a letter to the prime minister based on constitutional arguments. The only institution that could decide otherwise is the Constitutional Court.”
The president refuses to appoint Turek because of his views and public statements. Macinka, who is currently also serving as temporary Environment Minister, came into conflict with the president over his refusal. However, like the prime minister, he has ruled out filing a competence lawsuit over the issue at the Constitutional Court. The government instead appointed Turek as the Commissioner for Climate Change and the Green Deal, with an office in the Environment Ministry.
Pavel and Babis also discussed the government’s decision to revoke the previous government’s resolution on the selection of ambassadors due to its disagreement with some of the nominations. The new cabinet wants to select them again.
“I explained to the president that, in our opinion, the ambassadors were approved prematurely and that there were far too many political nominees among them,” said Babis, adding that he would discuss the posting of ambassadors to foreign missions with the president individually.
“The question of the president’s constitutional power to appoint and dismiss heads of diplomatic missions is unquestionable; the nomination of ambassadors will be dealt with by the president and the prime minister,” KPR said.
According to the office, the same applies to participation in summits. In recent days, Macinka has suggested that Babis should attend the NATO summit in the summer instead of Pavel. “The president expects that [participation in summits] will be based on traditional representation at such meetings,” wrote KPR.
After the meeting at Prague Castle, both politicians moved to the Government Office in the Straka Academy for a meeting of the National Security Council.
