Czech President Petr Pavel announced on Tuesday that he has filed a lawsuit against the government, contesting Prime Minister Andrej Babiš‘s decision to exclude him from the delegation attending the NATO summit in Ankara this July.
The lawsuit, filed with the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, seeks clarification on who has the authority to determine whether the head of state can attend the NATO summit. The court is set to address the matter during its plenary session on Wednesday.
Dispute over representation
In his statement, Petr Pavel accused Andrej Babiš of attempting to “exclude” him from the summit, thereby “limiting the role assigned to him by the Constitution”. The president pointed out that his predecessors had attended all previous NATO summits, and he has participated in all alliance meetings since taking office in 2023.
After months of contention over who would represent Prague in Ankara, Andrej Babiš declared on Monday that the head of state could not join the official delegation because “this summit will be different from previous ones”.
Reasons for exclusion and Prime Minister’s reaction
During the upcoming meeting, the Prime Minister is expected to defend his decision to reduce core military spending to about 1.8 percent of GDP, which falls short of NATO’s target of 2 percent. Andrej Babiš‘s choice to bar Petr Pavel from attending may be linked to the former general’s opposition to these cuts, which he labeled “irresponsible”.
Andrej Babiš stated on Tuesday that while he “respects” the president’s decision to file a lawsuit, he “does not think it is a good idea”. “It is inappropriate for constitutional officials to sue each other”, he wrote on the X platform.
This dispute marks the latest escalation in the strained relationship between the two Czech politicians, who faced off in the 2023 presidential election. In his statement, Petr Pavel emphasized that the latest clash “is not really about one seat at one foreign meeting”, but about the distribution of power. “If I did not defend these powers, I would bear some responsibility for widely opening the door to further arbitrary restrictions on the powers of constitutional officials”, he wrote.
Source: Politico