On the Level: The Political Blunder of the Year from Ankara Has Ended. More Episodes of the Infantile Theater Are Already Being Prepared
We've seen a lot on the Czech political scene. The farce surrounding the NATO summit would certainly fit into the top 10 embarrassments that Czech politicians have flooded the public space with. It must be acknowledged that a part of the blame likely lies with the audience eager for foolishness, and so perhaps by the time of the presidential elections in less than two years, the case will likely fade into the gray of political mainstream.
Following in the media for several weeks, who will go with whom to a two-day political summit, who looked at whom, who touched whom, who sat with whom at the table, is like a return to the golden days of South American telenovelas.
Of course, there's also an absence of a deeper plot or a more sophisticated point. Political negotiations are often dry and difficult to understand for outsiders. Without this, diplomats and protocol officers wouldn't find their livelihood.
Did Petr Pavel go to Ankara on a trip?
And since we are on the ground of a Latin American telenovela, it's necessary to recall the famous phrase Cherchez la femme, meaning: (behind everything) look for the woman. This phrase enriched the world back in 1855 through Alexandre Dumas's novel The Mohicans of Paris, and the prime minister, known as a Francophile, fulfilled it by taking his wife to the summit, with whom he had previously parted ways.
"It all started with a communication card indicating that President Pavel is going on a trip. This card ran for three weeks, ending with Andrej Babiš going with Monika Babišová, whom he said he is no longer with. He no longer lives with her. Monika Babišová has an Instagram full of champagne, jets, caviar, and goes to dinner with Erdogan to meet with statesmen. So who is really going on a trip?"
asks, for example, commentator Petros Michopulos, which did not escape the discussion on network X.
Although the government claimed it was an extraordinary summit where they had to explain the non-fulfillment of allied commitments so vigorously that even the Czech president would be deafened. The fear for the president's hearing was so enormous that the Czech foreign minister spent the entire event trying to limit President Petr Pavel's program to keep him in silence. However, he didn't understand his kindness and met with other statesmen and participated in discussion panels with expert contributions. It must be admitted that he somewhat disrupted the telenovela plot by doing so.
But behind everything, there's a woman, and perhaps the prime minister didn't realize that the participation of his almost former wife doesn't exclude the presence of the president. Or is there something in this triangle that we're missing? Hopefully not, as the prime minister entertained at the table with talks about football (he immediately appointed the Norwegian national striker Haaland to the role of their prime minister) and the biographical film Melania (cherchez la femme for the second time, this time with a 12% rating on CSFD), while the president awkwardly interrupted the broadcasting of a telenovela with talks about defense spending.
As is well known, Petr Pavel enjoys exceptional authority within NATO structures, which dates back to when he served in one of the highest positions in the alliance's administration. Therefore, representatives of NATO's hegemon, the USA, joined the effort to protect his reputation, instructing the Czech government not to explain its shameful investment policy towards defense spending too much.
The famous explanation at the NATO summit did not happen, the president was pleased
Originally, government representatives had to attend this life-critical explanation contrary to all customs. However, viewers from the north of the American continent always preferred the genre of straightforward action over the soap opera-like explanations, and thus ordered a brief demonstration of what extra the Czech Republic would do within NATO. Therefore, instead of explanations, a promise was made for the Czech government to assist in financing a fund for purchasing American weapons for Ukraine.
The president flew out of the summit content, praising the government for this step. The prime minister was also satisfied, enjoying the entertainment, food, and a handshake with Donald Trump that brought an honest smile to his face.
"The more assertively the foreign minister promised what the president would not be allowed to do, the more convincingly Ankara showed that Czech foreign policy is not based on personal ultimatums, but on the respect of allies for democratic institutions. The public appearances of the minister throughout the affair often seemed more like demonstrations of personal vanity and political immaturity than the performance of responsible diplomacy. At times, it resembled more of a childish domestic political theater than the conduct of a head of diplomacy of a NATO member state... This is where the entire months-long campaign against the president in Ankara definitively collapsed," wrote Jiří Lobkowicz in his "summit review" after the broadcast of the last episode on X.
The role of the jester in Czech politics, which the Foreign Minister Petr Macinka once appointed himself, has thus received ruthless criticism. Further seasons of the soap opera from the world of Czech politics have been announced at least until the next elections, and changes in the main roles are not expected.
Sources: author text, commentary, X, Instagram, ČSFD, SeznamZprávy
