Did Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala "fake" a phone call with Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg, as a picture on his X social media account shows him with a photo app open while holding his phone during the call? No, that's not true: Both Fiala and Schallenberg confirmed on social media that they had spoken. In addition, Fiala's press office confirmed to Lead Stories that the photo was authentic, explaining that the Czech Prime Minister had accidentally opened the photo app on his phone during the call.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) which was published on TikTok on January 15, 2025. It features a screenshot of Petr Fiala´s official X account with a post in which he says he spoke with Schallenberg and shows him holding a phone. A zoomed-in picture of the screenshot then shows Fiala with a photo app open on his phone while holding it at his ear. The caption of the video says in Czech, translated into English by Lead Stories staff:
Why does Petr Fiala have a photo app open on his mobile during a call? Is he taking a picture of his ear? Or is he not calling anyone?
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Jan 21 10:17:13 2025 UTC)
The above post shows a zoomed-in screenshot of Petr Fiala´s official X account post (archived here) from January 14, 2025, in which he says he spoke with Austrian interim Chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, over the phone. On January 15, 2025, Schallenberg also posted on his X account (archived here) that he spoke with Fiala, saying that their first call was "very friendly" and outlined that they agreed on "strengthening neighbourly relations" between the two countries. Schallenberg has been serving as acting Federal Chancellor since January 10, 2025 (archived here).
Fiala's social media post of his call with Schallenberg attracted a lot of attention on social media, with some users claiming that he had faked the call (archived here), or that the picture was not authentic and that posting it while showing a photo app opened, was a foolish mistake (archived here) by Fiala's PR team. Czech mainstream media outlets also picked up on the case here or here (archived here and here), with some comparing it to a similar incident in which former Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris (archived here) was accused of faking a phone call with a supporter while having a photo app open on her phone.
Fiala spoke of the picture to the Czech tabloid Blesk, with which he had a scheduled interview (archived here). Fiala said in a video posted on Blesk´s social media channels on January 16, 2025, that he could not comment on the picture itself because it was not his responsibility to post it on social media, but that he could confirm that he had spoken to Schallenberg for almost 30 minutes and that his phone can sometimes accidentally open a photo or camera app during a call "by a careless movement."
Government´s spokeswoman Lucie Jesatkova (archived here) confirmed to Lead Stories on January 20, 2025, by email that the Prime Minister opened a photo app during the call by mistake and that the picture posted on Fiala´s official account is authentic as it has been taken during the call with Schallenberg.
