The Czech Constitutional Court has ordered Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’ government to include the country’s president, Petr Pavel, in the Czech delegation attending the July Nato summit in Ankara.

The preliminary ruling followed a lawsuit which the president and former high ranking Nato commander Pavel filed on June 23 in response to the cabinet not including Pavel in the official delegation, a break with the practice of the country's president leading the Czech delegations to Nato summits.

In a preliminary ruling the court stated that participation of the president at Nato summits has been an established practice and ordered the government “to notify the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation” that “the president of the republic is also part of the official delegation” to the summit.

The full ruling is yet to follow, but the court made the preliminary order to meet the June 26 deadline for accreditation at the summit scheduled for July 7-8. The court said it expected the government to observe the preliminary order. 

“The decisions have always been respected, I am not expecting it should be otherwise,” chairman of the Constitutional Court Josef Baxa was quoted as saying by Czech Television (CT).

The preliminary ruling was slammed by the Babiš-led ruling coalition members, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Petr Macinka, and leader of the anti-green and Eurosceptic Motorists for Themselves party, described it as “a constitutional putsch attempt”.

Babiš wrote on his X social media profile: “I respect the unusually swift decision of the Constitutional Court”. However, he also reposted a statement from his Ano party colleague Radek Vondráček, who described Pavel’s lawsuit as “absurd”.

Opposition politicians said the court’s decision must be respected, while leader of neoliberal Civic Democratic Party (ODS) Martin Kupka said the cabinet’s delays about the composition of the delegation were “part of the strategy to prevent the president from taking part in the Nato summit”.

Babiš and his Ano party joined forces with the far right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists parties to form the most right wing cabinet in Prague since WWII after ANO’s victory in the October general election.

Pavel’s lawsuit against the cabinet was the latest development in ongoing rows between the presidential office and the cabinet led by Babiš’ Ano party.

These included Pavel’s refusal to appoint controversy-stricken Filip Turek of the Motorists as the new minister of environment, and the president’s criticism of the failure to meet the 2% of GDP Nato defence spending target this year. As IntelliNews reported in January, Pavel also accused Macinka of blackmailing him after Macinka tried to pressure Pavel to change his decision not to appoint Turek as minister following a scandal over Turek’s racist, sexist and homophobic online comments.