Czech president files competency lawsuit against cabinet

PRAGUE

Czech President Petr Pavel said on June 23 he has filed a competency lawsuit against the government after it snubbed him as the Czech representative at next month’s NATO summit.

Pavel has attended all NATO summits since taking office in 2023, just like all his predecessors since Vaclav Havel in 1999 when the Czech Republic joined the alliance.

But the nationalist government of billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis decided on June 22 that the former NATO general will stay at home for the summit in Ankara next month.

Babis said he himself would go to Ankara with the foreign and defense ministers instead.

“I have filed a competency lawsuit with the constitutional court in order to clarify the powers of the president and the government in representing the country abroad, specifically at the NATO summit,” Pavel said in a lengthy statement.

He called the government’s decision “unprecedented and exceptionally unfortunate,” citing the constitution as saying the president was entitled to represent the country abroad.

The constitutional court said it had received the lawsuit and would give it priority.

Babis said he respected Pavel’s decision.

“But I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he wrote on X, adding the government’s decision was “pragmatic.”

Babis leads a three-party coalition comprising his catch-all ANO movement, the far-right SPD and the rightwing Euroskeptic Motorists.

He said he would go to Ankara with Foreign Minister Petr Macinka, the Motorists’ chairman, and Defense Minister Jaromir Zuna, nominated by the SPD.
Babis said the ministers can better explain why Prague is failing its defense spending pledge to NATO.