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President-elect Petr Pavel (left) and President Miloš Zeman hold talks on February 13, 2023 at the castle in Lány in Kladensk.
Lány (Kladensko) – Outgoing President Miloš Zeman agreed to provide a protocol from the inspection of the Supreme Audit Office (NAO) regarding the management of the Office of the President of the Republic (KPR) and its subordinate organizations. After today's meeting with Zeman, President-elect Petr Pavel said this, who invited Zeman to his inauguration in March during the meeting. On the other hand, he will not invite the presidents of neighboring states, he is going to negotiate with them shortly after taking office. Today in Lány, Pavel and Zeman discussed the results of the presidential elections and their causes, the functioning of the KPR, but also the presidential role in the Czech electoral system.
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Photo gallery: President-elect Petr Pavel
Pavel spoke at a press conference in Lány after about an hour's meeting. Zeman did not join him. According to Pavel, he explained this by the fact that in recent years he also left comments on his guests, this also applies to regular meetings with Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS). The politicians met in Masaryk's office, the press conference was held in the Music Salon. During Zeman's mandate, journalists waited outside the gates of the castle park for comments after the president's meetings with domestic politicians.
Pavel previously noted that the SAO's inspections found a number of irregularities, but not something that should lead to criminal prosecution from the point of view of the president of the office, Miloslav Kala. According to Kal's earlier statement, the conclusion of the inspection could be published in a few weeks at the most. Today, the president-elect and the outgoing president talked about some of Pavlo's concerns regarding the administration of the office. “Miloš Zeman questioned the legitimacy of talking about a possible criminal prosecution when there was no evidence yet,” remarked Pavel.
Pavel Zemana requested that the future chancellor Jana Vohralíková be consulted on personnel measures related to the CPR and contributory organizations. She will meet with Zeman's chancellor Vratislav Mynář and parliament chancellor Martin Plíšek on Tuesday.
Pavel invited Zeman to his inauguration, which takes place on March 9. Pavlo's team, on the other hand, dropped the idea of inviting the presidents of neighboring states to the inauguration. He explained it by saying that Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová would not be able to arrive, and he intends to meet with other heads of neighboring states soon after he takes office. By the end of March, Pavel will probably visit Slovakia, he will also meet Polish President Andrzej Duda and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
At the security conference in Munich this Friday and Saturday, Pavel will meet, for example, French President Emmanuel Macron or Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauséda. Further meetings are under negotiation. Pavel considers meetings on the sidelines of the conference to be more of an introduction. This week, in addition to Munich, he is planning a trip to the Karlovy Vary region on Wednesday and Thursday, where he wants to meet the leadership of the region and cities and visit schools, companies and meet with representatives of non-profit organizations.
In the debate with Zeman about in the elections today, Pavel singled out his team, but also admitted that he was helped in the second round by the fundamental mistakes of his opponent, Andrej Babiš (ANO). According to Zeman, who voted for Babiš, the chairman of the ANO opposition movement largely lost the election himself. He was probably alluding to Babiš's negative campaign about war and peace directed against Pavel between the two rounds of elections.
Pavel appreciated that the meeting had been arranged. According to him, the slight delays were caused by a different interpretation regarding who should initiate the meeting. In the end, Pavel proposed the term. He described the meeting as friendly and to the point. He also heard from Zeman a reflection on the fate of the Czech president in connection with the contradiction between the strengthened mandate of the president from direct elections and his powers.
