Sands of Discord: Macinka Leaks President Pavel's Text Message About Turek

On Tuesday evening, Petr Macinka, leader of the Motoristé sobě (Motorists for Themselves) party, revealed on the internet channel XTV — and later on his Facebook page — the text of an SMS message sent to him by Czech President Petr Pavel following their meeting on 20 November last year. Macinka billed the release as a "scandalous exposé."

In the message, the president wrote that the "new option" for a personnel reshuffle discussed at the meeting should be seen "as food for thought." "This will require careful weighing on your part, on the coalition's part, and on mine. Let's treat it as a working proposal, not a done deal," the SMS reads. Pavel also tactfully alluded to the risk of "poor Castle acoustics" — a phrase ANO representatives had once invoked when denying an agreement to raise the retirement age.

According to Prague Castle, the subject of Pavel and Macinka's talks was "personnel proposals from the Motorists party for the coalition government being formed." This apparently referred to a reshuffle proposed by Macinka: contrary to earlier statements, Filip Turek would not take the post of foreign minister but a less prominent one — minister of the environment.

Macinka insists the president's message contains no "direct indication" that the head of state objected to seeing Turek as environment minister either. "This is by no means a closed matter, as Petr Pavel is falsely claiming in Mladá fronta Dnes," Macinka said, referring to a recent interview in which the president revisited the dispute and admitted he should have "spoken more directly," since "some people need to be told things more plainly."

The president had earlier recounted: "When Petr Macinka and I sat here at the Castle, I told him that such a swap could largely defuse the tension in the conflict, but the underlying problems would remain." According to Pavel, he later wrote "directly" in the text message that he could not envision Turek even as environment minister.

Foreign Minister Turek responded by taking issue with the president's wording: "I didn't see Filip Turek's name there, nor the word 'environment,' nor any categorical or direct 'no.'" The rest of the post, which Macinka also shared on Facebook, was devoted to accusations against the president.

Presidential spokesman Vít Kolář, responding to a media inquiry, said the head of state considers the matter closed. "The president will no longer comment on this fully exhausted issue. For several weeks now, he has made clear — to politicians and the public alike — that he does not see Filip Turek in any public office," Kolář said.

"The published text message was written precisely in that context — as a polite refusal. It seems that for some people, a courteous and diplomatic way of communicating is simply too hard to grasp," the spokesman concluded.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz