Did the Czech government coalition refuse to condemn the assassination attempt of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico? No, that's not true: All top government representatives condemned the act publicly, but the coalition lawmakers did not support an oppositional party proposal to include an extraordinary vote on condemning the act, during a parliamentary session.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on May 23, 2024. The person speaking in the video is Tomio Okamura (archived here), the leader of the oppositional Freedom and Direct Democracy party. The video shows his speech in parliament, where he proposes to add an extra point to be voted, extraordinarily, during the parliamentary session, which the government lawmakers rejected. The text overlay on the video reads in Czech, translated by Lead Stories staff into English as: "The government five-member coalition refused to condemn the assassination attempt of the Slovak Prime Minister Fico!!" The comments in Czech and Slovak include statements, translated by Lead Stories staff as:
So they approve of the crime.
Sad, very sad, moral disaster has struck us.
So I take it, you in Czechia, actually approve of the assasination attempt.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon May 27 07:18:28 2024 UTC)
The allegation that the five-member Czech ruling coalition refused to condemn the attempted murder of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (archived here) on May 15, 2024, is taken out of context, as it refers only to the fact that lawmakers refused to include an extra point to vote on the condemnation of the crime during a parliamentary session in the lower chamber, for procedural reasons and also to avoid attempts of politicians to exploit the issue for their own publicity.
All top representatives of the Czech government and the president immediately and publicly condemned the act, expressing sympathy for Robert Fico, who was shot and seriously injured on May 15, 2024, in Handlová, Slovakia. His attempted murder shocked the country and Europe (archived here). Prime Minister Petr Fiala posted a statement on his X account (archived here) on May 15, 2024, calling the violent act "shocking," not appropriate in politics, and saying that such violence cannot be tolerated. Czech President Petr Pavel also said that the assassination attempt was "clearly a condemnable crime" on X on May 15, 2024 (archived here). Similar post from the government vice-premiers Vit Rakusan, leader of the STAN party, and Ivan Bartos, leader of the Pirate party, condemning the act can be found here (archived here) and here (archived here). Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky also said the attack was shocking and wished for Fico to gain strength and have a speedy recovery from his injuries (archived here). The head of the lower chamber Marketa Pekarova Adamova stated that such "politically motivated violence is not acceptable" (archived here).
The TikTok video above shows, in particular, Tomio Okamura, leader of Freedom and Direct Democracy, a populist opposition party in parliament, taking the floor during the debate to propose adding an extra point to the program of the parliamentary session (archived here) on May 21, 2024, to publicly condemn Fico's attack. The video shows excerpts from his speech on that day but omits the reactions of other lawmakers to his speech.
According to the stenographic record of the debate (archived here) that followed, after the addition of the point was rejected by the lower chamber, lawmakers had already agreed not to approve such a resolution during the informal meeting among the parliamentary speakers and the heads of political groups in the lower chamber ahead of the parliamentary session.
After Okamura took the floor to complain about the cabinet coalition lawmakers not approving the vote on the resolution on Fico, government lawmakers Marek Benda (archived here) and Jan Jakob (archived here) both responded that adding such a point was not agreed across parliament parties, to avoid attempts of being exploited by some for their purposes or agendas.
Both Benda and Jakob pointed out that all members of parliament, no matter their political affiliation, condemned the assassination attempt, some publicly. Benda, who said he had known Fico for 25 years, also called Okamura´s attempt to push through a vote on the resolution "a vain gesture" used to improve his image with the public, shows the stenographic record.
The Slovak parliament took a public stance and unanimously approved a resolution condemning the Slovak Prime Minister's assassination attempt and called to stop spreading hatred against politicians on behalf of rivals, media, or non-governmental organizations on May 21, 2024 (archived here).
