Czech President Petr Pavel is not one given to rash pronouncements.
The ex-head of the Czech armed forces and former chairman of the NATO Military Committee cuts a calm, unflappable figure.
His public remarks, whether scripted or unscripted, are usually delivered in a measured, steady tone, helped by his military bearing and impeccably clipped silver goatee and moustache.
But Tuesday's unscheduled press briefing was different. The president's voice shook with emotion as he struggled to contain his anger.
He'd called the briefing at Prague Castle to accuse Foreign Minister Petr Macinka of blackmail.
Allegations of blackmail
Pavel was referring to late night SMS text messages sent by Macinka, head of the euroskeptic Motorists for Themselves party — one of three parties in Prime Minister Andrej Babis's conservative coalition — to Petr Kolar, the president's chief advisor.
The president decided to publish the messages in full.
Macinka ready to fight 'with no scruples'
"If I have Turek at the Environment Ministry, he [President Pavel] can have peace of mind. If not, I will burn our bridges in a way that will enter the textbooks of political science as an extreme case of cohabitation," Macinka wrote in one message, referring to the system of balancing executive power between the president and the government.
"I have the prime minister's support on this matter, not to mention the stance of the SPD," Macinka added in the SMS, referring to the far-right SPD party that is the third member of Andrej Babis's coalition.
The president's advisor, a former ambassador to Washington and Moscow, pledged to pass on the message, but added "I'd be quite surprised, however, if the president changes his mind. Knowing him as I do, he has a fairly well-developed instinct for fighting in difficult terrain."
But Macinka wasn't having that.
"I'm not sure he realizes properly that he's no longer a soldier, but a politician… I'm prepared to fight him over Turek so brutally that it will become a major, long-lasting problem. With no scruples," he wrote.
President refers messages to police
Not surprisingly the exchanges have dominated the news agenda in Czechia this week.
The Czech police's National Centre Against Organized Crime (NCOZ) has confirmed it has received a formal submission from the President's Office to review the content of the messages.
It will make an initial assessment as to whether the messages could constitute a crime under Czech law.
Most lawyers quoted in Czech media think they are distasteful, rather than illegal. But the die, it seems, has been cast.
Macinka has rejected accusations of blackmail, saying the messages constituted regular political negotiation.
The opposition has seized on the spat, and has called a vote of no-confidence for next week — a vote that is almost guaranteed to fail. But it's not the start to the new government that Andrej Babis wanted.
Dispute threatens to derail Czech diplomacy
Petr Macinka, meanwhile, has suggested that President Pavel may no longer be allowed to represent Czechia at the NATO summit in Ankara in July.
Babis has already said he expects Mr. Pavel to represent the country at the meeting, but Macinka says the accreditation for such meetings is processed by the Foreign Ministry, and President Pavel may not be going anywhere this summer.
While the prime minister originally said he wanted to mediate a reconciliation as soon as possible, he described the wording used by Macinka in the messages as "unfortunate" and rejected Pavel's claims of blackmail.
On Thursday he gave his backing to the foreign minister and ruled out sacking him.
The Motorists 'need an opponent'
So, why did Macinka — who won 6,400 votes in September's parliamentary elections — risk a direct confrontation with Pavel, who won 3.3 million votes in the 2023 vote for the presidency?
"Petr Macinka and the Motorists need an opponent so they don't completely dissolve into Babis's embrace," said Jindrich Sidlo, journalist, commentator and co-host of the Dobrovsky and Sidlo podcast.
"The president will assess the outcome based on one single thing: the result of the 2028 presidential election. I do not really see any other criterion," he went on. "The opposition today has only one leader — the president."
Escalation
For now, it's not only Pavel's trip to Ankara that's in jeopardy.
A day before the scandal erupted, the cabinet rescinded its approval for a set of ambassadorial postings agreed by the outgoing government and the president.
Pavel, however, can also refuse to sign replacement appointments made by the new government.
It's nasty stuff, but many observers think Petr Macinka has bitten off more than he can chew.
Open confrontation
"Petr Macinka seemed to believe that his years of quiet service as an aide to former President Vaclav Klaus — one of the few true heavyweights in Czech politics — had given him enough insight to navigate treacherous waters," said journalist and commentator Josef Bouska.
"But he gravely underestimated one basic fact: Klaus built his reputation in hard-fought battles, and more than once managed to resurrect his career," Bouska told DW.
"Macinka, however, has no political record of his own. His messages to Petr Pavel's adviser reveal a delusional man who fancies himself a master schemer — almost like Don Corleone making the president an offer he can't refuse," he went on, in a reference to the famous Godfather films.
"But Macinka is no Vito. He's not a cold, strategic thinker. He's more of a Fredo: out of his depth, ridiculed and achieving the opposite of what he intended," Bouska said, adding that the president will now never appoint Filip Turek.
Instead, President Pavel has been pushed into open confrontation with the Babis government.
