Political leaders condemn pre-election violence but still blame rivals

Members of the country’s political parties reacted quickly to condemn the attack on the top Social Democrat politician. Petr Nečas, the leader of the Social Democrats’ main rivals, the centre-right Civic Democrats, said it was unacceptable. But he also criticised the Social Democrats for bringing violence into the campaign.

President Václav Klaus earlier condemned two previous incidents when a glass of pickled sausages was thrown at speakers during a Social Democrat rally and when students displayed a banner suggesting the Social Democrat leader could be assassinated. Some party leaders have blamed the negative tone of the whole campaign ahead of lower house elections at the end of May. Christian Democrat leader Cyril Svoboda called for the election campaign to be limited to four weeks.