Pavel and Macinka shake hands in public for the first time in ages

Czech President Petr Pavel and Foreign Minister Ondřej Macinka publicly shook hands for the first time in a long while, at a reception held for a visiting Jordanian delegation. The authenticity of the photograph was confirmed by Foreign Ministry spokesman Adam Čergo, though he declined to say whether the gesture signals the end of the "extreme cohabitation" Macinka had previously declared.

Macinka himself did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

Where the "extreme cohabitation" came from

The term emerged during a bitter clash between the minister and Prague Castle over the President's refusal to appoint Filip Turek (Motoristé party) as a minister. At the time, Macinka wrote to presidential adviser Petr Kolář: "If not, I'll burn bridges so thoroughly that it will go down in political science textbooks as the extreme case of cohabitation."

At the Castle, officials are downplaying the significance of the handshake itself. According to presidential spokesman Daniel Drake, it took place ahead of a joint lunch where all guests were introduced to both the presidential and the royal couples, and Macinka's presence was simply a natural consequence of the make-up of the Jordanian delegation. "Since Jordan's foreign minister was also present at the talks with the King of Jordan, we were of course glad that his Czech counterpart came along too," Drake noted. Macinka subsequently held a bilateral meeting with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, at the Foreign Ministry.

Castle–government relations are warming up

Sources say relations between the Foreign Ministry and the President's Office have been improving more broadly of late. According to one source, contacts between the two institutions have grown noticeably warmer in recent weeks, helped along by a diplomatic trip to New York.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) has also recently buried the hatchet — until quite recently he had refused to negotiate with the President and had tried to block his trip to the NATO summit in Ankara in July. Pavel saw this as an infringement on his presidential powers and turned to the Constitutional Court, which issued an interim measure allowing him to attend the summit anyway.

On Monday, Babiš met with Pavel for the first time in several months, following a chill in government–Castle relations caused by mutual disputes. The Prime Minister said he now intends to meet with the President on a regular basis.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz