The president of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, warned this Thursday that he is willing to go to the Czech Constitutional Court if Prime Minister Andrej Babis excludes him from the official delegation that will attend the next NATO summit in Turkey, scheduled for two months from now.
In statements made during the opening of the GLOBSEC forum, a security conference held in Prague, and reported by Radio Prague, Pavel indicated that he will challenge any government decision that limits his constitutional powers, which include the external representation of the state.
It is customary for the Czech head of state to participate in NATO summits, but the political confrontation between Babis and Pavel, the latter a retired general and former high-ranking NATO official, has cast doubt on his presence at the meeting that will bring together the leaders of the 32 allies in Ankara.
Pavel has questioned the defense spending plans of Babis's Executive and has emphasized that the Czech Republic is not respecting the commitment made within NATO to allocate 2% of GDP to the military budget.
A month ago, the president accused the prime minister of not reaching the spending threshold and of neglecting NATO's military requirements, known as capability targets. "If all NATO members behaved this way, their collective defense would become ineffective," he reproached, in a clash after which Babis stated that he did not count on Pavel to represent the country at the summit in Turkey. The final decision on the composition of the Czech delegation is expected to be made before June 8.
With a Eurosceptic profile and a supporter of restricting military aid to Ukraine, Babis has maintained that he does not feel obliged to respect the promise of the previous government of the conservative Petr Fiala to raise defense spending to 3% and has pointed out that his cabinet will invest in the military field only as much as possible.