“It won’t be,” Macinka said emphatically to Novinka when asked if Petr Pavel would be the head of the Czech delegation to Ankara. The summit of the North Atlantic Alliance will take place there in two weeks.
“The government’s resolution is clear and the Constitutional Court did not condemn us to be the leader of the delegation, but to be a member of the delegation,” the minister added.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) answered the question whether Pavel will be at the head of the delegation briefly: “I have no idea, we will solve it at the government on Monday. The Constitutional Court decided that he should be a member of the delegation.”
The Constitutional Court intervened in the dispute between the government and the president over the participation of the head of state at the summit on Wednesday with a preliminary measure. At Pavlo’s suggestion, he decided that the government should take him to Ankara, even though it had previously decided otherwise. The court will decide the entire competence dispute later.
Both Babiš and Macinka acknowledged that all they had to do was have the president handle the accreditation additionally. At the same time, however, the foreign minister already rejected on Wednesday that Pavel would replace Babiš at the head of the delegation.
Pavel perceives the situation differently. “The minister evidently did not understand again the division of roles and functions in this state. It is necessary to make it clear that if the president is in any delegation, he is automatically the head of that delegation,” the president told Czech Television and Czech Radio on Thursday in response to Macinka’s address.
The dispute is also about which part of the meeting the president will participate in. Especially if he or Babiš will go to the informal dinner before the official part of the summit. “The president will decide whether to participate in any part of the summit, i.e. the informal dinner or the main meeting. Not the government, not the foreign minister,” said Pavel.
To this, Babiš said: “It’s ridiculous, embarrassing. We will be global again, as we were global with bitcoins, where the government laundered money for organized crime. If Mr. President wants to fight for a chair in Ankara, that’s his choice.” According to the prime minister, the head of state is doing everything to divide society.
Macinka previously refused Pavlova’s participation in the dinner, saying that Babiš had already received an official invitation. Now he did not want to comment on what program the president will have at the summit.
The government is to discuss the details of the events in Ankara again on Monday.
