Is Pavel Novotny, a controversial Prague district mayor, an advisor to Czech President Petr Pavel? No, that's not true: The president's office and Novotny confirmed to Lead Stories via email that it is not true.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by TikTok on Aug. 12. It has a caption in Czech, translated by Lead Stories staff that reads:
Hey, look at what kind of advisor I have.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Aug 17 09:04:24 2023 UTC)
The image used in the video is from Pavel´s visit to Novotny's office on November 22, 2022, during his campaign for the January 2023 presidential election.
Czech President Petr Pavel's spokeswoman Marketa Rehakova confirmed to Lead Stories via e-mail that Novotny is not an advisor to the president and Novotny also said in an email that he does not work as an advisor for the presidential office.
Novotny, a former head of a Czech tabloid news site, is known for his abrasive statements and controversial comments on political issues, he has also expressed staunch opposition to the current regimes in Russia and China.
He has been the subject of similar hoaxes, presenting him as an advisor to Petr Fiala, the Czech prime minister, and the leader of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), of which he is a member. Those claims were debunked by AFP here.
