Czechia’s President Petr Pavel has accused Petr Macinka, the country’s new minister of foreign affairs and leader of the anti-green and Eurosceptic Motorists for Themselves party, of blackmailing him.

The two politicians have been at loggerheads after Pavel refused to appoint the Motorists’ honorary chairman Filip Turek as minister of environment following a scandal over Turek’s racist, sexist and homophobic online comments. 

As bne IntelliNews covered earlier this month, the relationship between Macinka and Pavel received a further blow after Macinka slammed Pavel for discussing sending L-159 jets to Ukraine during Pavel’s latest visit to Kyiv. The latest escalation came after Macinka insisted Pavel appoint Turek to the environment portfolio of the cabinet led by populist Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.

“I am standing in front of an irreversible decision [about] what to do next about Mr. President. I think he should know,” Macinka wrote in a text message to Pavel’s senior aide Petr Kolář, which Pavel shared on his Facebook social media profile.

“He [the president] can have peace if I have Turek at the Ministry of Environment,” Macinka continued the message, writing that “if not, I will burn the bridges [between the president and myself] which would enter the textbooks of political science as an extreme case of cohabitation”.

Macinka’s subsequent text messages to Kolář also include formulations such as “if he [the president] does not back down, I am ready to make maximalist steps until the very possible detail”.  

At a press conference held on Tuesday 27, Pavel stated “I consider the words of the minister of foreign affairs in the text messages as a blackmail attempt. I consider it completely unacceptable in our democratic conditions.”

Pavel also stated he would file a complaint with security services and let a lawyer assess whether this amounts to criminal blackmail.

The exchange of animosities between the two highest ranking representatives of Czech foreign affairs policy is unprecedented, and it is likely to shape the relationship between the liberal president and Andrej Babiš’ rightwing cabinet for the next two years. Pavel’s term expires in 2028, but he is likely to tap on his current popularity and run for the office again.

Pavel also clashed with Babiš when he insisted the billionaire politician resolves his conflict of interest in connection with his ownership of food, agriculture and chemical conglomerate Agrofert before appointing Babiš as prime minister.

Babiš’s populist Ano party joined forces with far right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists after winning the October general election to the country’s parliament, where it has a comfortable majority with 108 seats.

Turek is the most visible and controversial politician in the Motorists party, and has faced a public backlash over his collection of Nazi memorabilia and photos of himself raising his arm in a Nazi-like salute.