Czech President Pavel files competency lawsuit against Cabinet

PRAGUE - Czech President Petr Pavel said on June 23 that 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 defence 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 eurosceptic Motorists.

He said he would go to Ankara with Foreign Minister Petr Macinka, the Motorists’ chairman, and Defence Minister Jaromir Zuna, nominated by the SPD.

Babis said the ministers can better explain why Prague is failing its defence spending pledge to NATO.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said recently that the Czech Republic failed to spend two percent of GDP on defence in 2025, and Babis then said it would fail the criterion this year too.

Pavel beat Babis in a presidential run-off vote in 2023, and their relations are sometimes strained, including a spat over the appointment of Babis’s government late last year.

Pavel got embroiled in a dispute with the Motorists as he refused to appoint their candidate Filip Turek as minister after he had been accused of rape and criticised for misogynistic and racist remarks.

Thousands of Czechs rallied in support of Pavel after that.

Pavel is also a staunch supporter of Ukraine battling a Russian invasion since 2022, while the government has rejected any direct military aid to Kyiv. AFP