Trump ally blocks Czech president from Nato summit

{"text":[[{"start":8.3,"text":"Trump ally Andrej Babiš has blocked the Czech president from attending next month’s Nato summit in Ankara, triggering a constitutional challenge over who has the authority to represent Prague abroad."}],[{"start":19.6,"text":"Petr Pavel, a former Nato commander and staunch supporter of Ukraine, said on Tuesday he was taking the dispute to the constitutional court over what he called an “unprecedented and extremely unfortunate step” that infringed the president’s powers."}],[{"start":35.150000000000006,"text":"The clash marks the latest escalation in a power struggle between Pavel and Babiš, the Eurosceptic billionaire prime minister who returned to office in December after campaigning against making Czech citizens pay for Ukraine’s weapons."}],[{"start":49.7,"text":"Pavel defeated Babiš in a presidential run-off in 2023. But Babiš then returned to power at the helm of a coalition government after his ANO party won parliamentary elections last year. "}],[{"start":61.85,"text":"Despite the uneasy cohabitation in Prague, Pavel said that he had made repeated efforts to avoid “months of public bickering” with the government over representation at the Nato summit, suggesting that both could travel to Ankara and that he would limit himself to attending an informal dinner, while leaving Babiš to handle the official negotiations. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":81.4,"text":"“This dispute is not really about one chair at one foreign meeting. It is about the government’s conscious decision to exclude the president, the supreme commander of the armed forces and a former high representative of Nato, from the alliance’s summit at a time when he could apply his life-long expertise to the benefit of the security of the Czech Republic and its citizens,” Pavel said."}],[{"start":102.05000000000001,"text":"Pavel called on the constitutional court to clarify who can decide on participation in the summit and to order the government not to obstruct the president and instead co-operate with him. He also noted that Czech presidents had represented the country at 19 of the past 20 Nato summits, except once due to health problems."}],[{"start":121.75000000000001,"text":"“If this practice were to change for any reason, it must again occur through negotiations and agreement, not a unilateral decision by the government,” Pavel said on Tuesday. “Prime Minister Andrej Babiš recently said that the president is not his superior. He is right about that. I would just add that the reverse is also true.”"}],[{"start":142.15,"text":"Babiš, who has embraced Maga-style populism and knows Donald Trump from his first term at the White House, is set to travel to Ankara with his foreign and defence ministers. The Czech prime minister is betting on his proximity to Trump to avoid the US president’s ire over Prague missing Nato defence spending targets."}],[{"start":159.70000000000002,"text":"Babiš told the FT last month that his government would “probably” miss the alliance’s target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence this year, but that he was counting on the “advantage” of being among the last leaders in the region to openly support the US president."}],[{"start":177.3,"text":"The Czech premier is also less committed to arming Ukraine, in contrast with Pavel who in 2024 helped launch a Prague-led international initiative that has supplied artillery shells to Kyiv. Babiš stopped financing the project, and the number of countries participating in it has halved since last year. "}],[{"start":202.05,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782219566_8868.mp3"}