The Castle announced last night that Pres. Petr Pavel won't appoint Andrej Babiš as the next Czech prime minister - even if he resolves his conflict of interest - until after Pavel has met with all the cabinet nominees. This is a significant departure from the way his predecessor did it. In 2021, Petr Fiala was appointed as the designated PM on Nov. 28, and his government was sworn in on Dec. 17. Miloš Zeman first appointed Fiala and then resolved the issue of Jan Lipavský as foreign minister. Pavel, however, clearly wants a final public debate on the cabinet as a whole before appointing Babiš. This means mainly Filip Turek (Foreign Affairs), Petr Macinka (Environment), Jaromír Zůna (Defense) and Martin Šebestyán (Agriculture). And of course Babiš himself as the "conflicted" PM. Pavel wants to be able to present the entire "lethal cocktail" at once so that he gets the public, media and intelligence support he needs for opposing such a cabinet and saving Czechs from the results of their own democratic elections.