Did Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala promise that the Czech Republic would replace German aid to Ukraine with its funds if Germany were to cut it? No, that's not true: The Czech Prime Minister never said that, and a photo pretending to show him saying that is an alteration of a social media post from Fiala's political party.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on September 3, 2024. It shows a photo of a social media post with the image of the Czech Prime Minister, Petr Fiala, and next to it, a sentence in Czech, attributed to him, translated into English by Lead Stories staff: "If Germany stops sending money to Ukraine, the Czech government will send the missing funds. We will find the money for it, we will not let Ukraine fall." The person speaking in the video says in Czech, as translated:
Oh my gosh, guys, I came across this on Facebook. Well, he can´t be serious, he is really retarded. He is a real nutcase.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Sep 5 10:30:48 2024 UTC)
The TikTok video shares an altered image of a post from the Civic Democratic Party's X account (archived here), the senior member of the governing coalition. This is the original post (archived here) from November 13, 2022, featuring a statement by Czech Prime Minister Fiala.
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Sep 10 at 10:16:41 2024 UTC)
Along with the picture of the prime minister, the original post contains a statement by Fiala on the party's previous pledge not to raise taxes, which is beyond the scope of this fact check.
The image in the TikTok video altered Fiala's statement, showing him allegedly saying that the Czech Republic would find means to replace German "financial aid" to Ukraine if it stopped.
The spokesman for the Civic Democrats, Jakub Skyva (archived here), wrote to Lead Stories in an email on September 9, 2024, that "neither the party nor the Prime Minister's team are the authors of the graphic image," as translated by Lead Stories staff. Czech government spokeswoman Lucie Jesatkova (archived here) also confirmed to Lead Stories in an email on September 10, 2024, that the premier never said that the Czechs would replace the aid to Ukraine, as claimed in the above TikTok video.
The Czech government has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, providing military and other aid to the war-torn country. The cabinet has often been attacked by anti-government trolls and criticized by some politicians from the opposition for burdening the country's public finances with aid for Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees. Examples can be found here (archived here) or here (archived here). The manipulated post in the above TikTok video, with the false statement attributed to Fiala, fuels the same anti-government sentiments.
The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on August 17, 2024, that Germany may halt its military aid to Ukraine amid domestic budget spending restrictions, citing documents and emails obtained by the newspaper (archived here). On September 4, 2024, Reuters cited Chancellor Olaf Scholz as saying that Germany will not reduce its support for Ukraine despite the domestic budget squeeze (archived here).
