VIDEO: How the President of the Czech Republic Accidentally Struck a Soldier on the Head with a Flag

The President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, has apologized for an incident that occurred during a ceremony marking the founding of Czechoslovakia on Prague's Vítkov Hill, when he accidentally knocked a soldier's cap off with a flag. This was reported by 'European Truth'.

On Saturday, a ceremony took place in Prague’s Vítkov to commemorate the anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s founding. President Pavel raised a military flag in front of an assembled honor guard. However, as he held the flag, he struggled to keep it aloft and accidentally struck the head of one of the soldiers, causing his cap to fall off. The soldier did not react to the incident.

Video footage of Pavel knocking off the cap went viral on Czech social media for some time. Hours later, the president publicly apologized to the soldier.

“I feel the need to at least apologize in this way for any physical or psychological harm caused to the member of the guard of the fortress, who was touched by the military flag during the Vítkov ceremony,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

Pavel reassured the public that such an event was certainly not planned. “This was, of course, not an attempt to introduce a new element into standard military procedures; I simply underestimated the weight of the flag,” he noted.