Recriminations follow violent attack on politician at election rally

Politicians across the board were shaken by a violent attack on the deputy leader of the Social Democrats, Bohuslav Sobotka, at an election rally in Brno on Wednesday. Mr. Sobotka had just finished speaking when he was approached and punched in the face by a man in the audience. His party has described it as an attack on freedom and democracy and blame their main rival, the centre-right Civic Democrats, for whipping up an atmosphere of hate and violence – something the latter deny. Sarah Borufka reports.

Bohuslav Sobotka, photo: www.bohuslavsobotka.cz

With elections just three weeks away, the tone of the campaign has sharpened. The two biggest players on the Czech political scene, the Civic Democrats and the Social Democrats, have been ridiculing each other on billboards across the country for weeks.

Now a violent attack against the deputy leader of the Social Democrats, Bohuslav Sobotka, at an election rally in the South Moravian city of Brno on Wednesday evening has added even more fuel to the fire.

Mr. Sobotka had just finished his speech when he was approached by a man from the audience and brutally punched in the face. Visibly shaken, the former finance minister was taken to hospital, where he will remain under supervision until Thursday afternoon.

Police arrested the perpetrator, a 48-year-old man who was heavily intoxicated at the time. The Minister of the Interior Martin Pecina told Czech Television the case would be dealt with in a matter of days.

Jiří Paroubek, photo: CTK

“To talk about a motive at this point is premature, what we do know is that the perpetrator was arrested. The state prosecutor has ordered he remain in custody and that the case be dealt with as quickly as possible. So we can expect a fast-track sentence.”

The man is currently being interrogated by the police and could be tried as early as Saturday.

Meanwhile, the incident has fanned tensions between the Social and the Civic Democrats. Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek said shortly after the attack that it was an escalation of the hate campaign that is being lead against his party by both the right-of-center media and by the Civic Democrats. This was sharply rejected by the leader of the latter, Petr Nečas.

“Even though the Social Democrats still do not have any information about the motive of the perpetrator, they have already managed to blame all their political opponents and even the media for it. I am convinced that the incident should not be politicized. And I would also like to point out that the aggressive tone, and below-the-belt attacks, were brought into the election campaign by the Social Democrats.”

Petr Nečas

The Social Democrats have halted their campaign in South Moravia, where the attack occurred, until the end of the week. In a separate incident, a campaigning stand belonging to the Social Democrats was set on fire late on Wednesday night. It is not clear yet if this was a politically motivated attack or a mere act of vandalism. The party’s leadership has reacted by changing the format of its campaigning. Instead of election rallies out in the open, campaigning will take place indoors where it will be easier to guarantee security.