Prague, Dec 23 (CTK) – This is a remembrance of the fact that terrorism knows no bounds and also relates to the Czech Republic, Czech politicians said in reaction to the information that a Czech woman was among the victims of the Monday attack on the Christmas market in Berlin.
The perpetrator, probably a Tunisian man killed later by the Italian police, drove a truck into the crowd, killing 12 people and injuring many others.
There is a need to outline a specific plan with which to face the threats of international terrorism, Petr Fiala, leader of the opposition Civic Democratic Party (ODS), has told journalists.
There is a need to push society together in the fight against terror and evil, Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Belobradek (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) said.
Chamber of Deputies chairman Jan Hamacek (Social Democrats, CSSD) said the government should continue with its efforts to protect the EU outer border.
A Czech woman, named Nada Cizmarova, who lived and worked in Germany on a long-term basis, was one of the 12 victims of the attack.
The police eventually found out that based on a DNA analysis and other identification, she is one of the dead.
Her husband said she had worked with a German employer in Berlin.
“The news about Cizmarova’s death is a tremendous human tragedy and my ideas primarily lie with her family,” Fiala said.
The fight against terrorism is definitively a war of the Czech Republic, he added.
“The tragic event has reminded us again of the need to protect our border and to make a sovereign decision on who can stay in this country and to whom we will provide protection,” he said.
President Milos Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek wrote to CTK that “much strength must be wished to the victim’s family in these difficult hours.”
“One has to realise that terrorism is no distant threat, but an evil touching upon each of us,” Ovcacek said.
“A Czech citizen was one of the victims, which strongly reminds of the Berlin attack being an attack on all of us,” opposition TOP 09 leader Miroslav Kalousek said.
Sympathies for the victim were also expressed by the chairman, Milan Stech (CSSD).
The German embassy to Prague voiced sincere sympathies to the family of the victim and her friends.
“We are very sorry that a Czech woman, too, is among the victims of the Christmas market attack in Berlin,” the embassy said.
