Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100Thu, 23 Jul 2026 03:22:52 +0200https://english.radio.cz/czech-politicians-come-blows-two-weeks-ahead-parliamentary-elections-8619584© 2026 Radio Prague International It was a resounding slap that reverberated for hours after it had been dealt. At a meeting of Czech dentists on Saturday Miroslav Macek, a former deputy prime minister in the 1990s and long time adviser to President Vaclav Klaus, walked over to Health Minister David Rath and without warning hit him on the back of the head, starting a fistfight. Macek claims he was settling a personal score with the minister because of insulting remarks he'd made about his wife, but the nature of the attack - at the start of a conference with TV cameras rolling - suggested otherwise. The incident came less than a fortnight before parliamentary elections in the midst of what commentators have described as the most aggressive election campaign in the country's modern history. encr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas)webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) https://english.radio.cz/sites/default/files/images/rath_macek_facka.jpg?timestamp=1591442524 https://english.radio.cz/czech-politicians-come-blows-two-weeks-ahead-parliamentary-elections-8619584 Radio Prague International Radio Prague International radio.prague.int@gmail.com clean 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9