Czech politicians come to blows two weeks ahead of parliamentary elections - 22-05-2006 - Radio Prague

It was a resounding slap that reverberated for hours after it had been dealt. At a meeting of Czech dentists on Saturday Miroslav Macek, a former deputy prime minister in the 1990s and long time adviser to President Vaclav Klaus, walked over to Health Minister David Rath and without warning hit him on the back of the head, starting a fistfight. Macek claims he was settling a personal score with the minister because of insulting remarks he'd made about his wife, but the nature of the attack - at the start of a conference with TV cameras rolling - suggested otherwise. The incident came less than a fortnight before parliamentary elections in the midst of what commentators have described as the most aggressive election campaign in the country's modern history.
David Rath and Miroslav Macek, photo: CTK David Rath and Miroslav Macek, photo: CTK

It is rare for Czech politicians to come to blows and whatever Mr. Macek's intention - it appears to have backfired. The Civic Democratic Party of which he was a prominent member in the 1990s clearly resented the negative publicity.
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Rarely does a slap have so much impact. If it hurt the Civic Democrats it also caused embarrassment at Prague Castle and Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek was quick to point out that such behaviour from an adviser to the president should not be tolerated.

How shameful! This could only happen in Czech politics. Oh, it actually happens all over the place? So, not shameful, then. But it is pretty funny.