Czech Senator embarrassingly falls for satire claiming EU wants to change the Czech alphabet

We have written several times here at Romea.cz about Czech Senator Jaroslav Doubrava. Mostly we have reported his anti-Romani, racist remarks, or his attacks against the European Union (EU).

This most recent incident also involves the senator attacking the EU. However, it also involves an enormous embarrasment.

Doubrava has shared online a long-refuted hoax claiming the EU wants to abolish the use of the Czech letter Ř. Doubrava has posted the following to his Facebook profile: “All the people named Řehoř, Bedřich or Jindřich will especially have to prepare for big changes, but the flying linguistic somersaults will affect each one of us. The European Linguistic Council, which is part of the EU, has unanimously decided that as of July the letter Ř is to be abolished.”

His followers clearly understand what that means. “It’s four and a half minutes after midnight, how much longer will we let ourselves be absolutely destroyed?” a user named Jaroslav Forejtek asks in a post beneath the Senator’s message.

“Again we have a big mess. Instead of Moscow, Brussels is in charge,” writes anoher fan of Doubrava’s.

“That is a mockery of the nation and shows the debility of these vermin who want to rule the world! It makes me feel like throwing up, they are discussing lame stuff while the illegals merrily destroy Europe,” a Facebook user named Jana Jarešová posts, taking the opportunity to attack the EU and refugees.

Many of the Facebook users warn the senator, however, that what he has posted is nonsense. “For God’s sake, don’t bring these stupid hoaxes in here!” responds Facebook user Václav Hrách – and he’s right.

The news server Manipulátoři.cz warned last year that the “news” item is actually satire. “A fabulous aspect of the Internet is that whatever amount of stupidity you launch into the world, people will always be found who take it seriously. That applies, naturally, to satire and to more or less successful parodies,” Manipulátoři.cz wrote in July 2016.

The report about the abolishing of the letter Ř was published by a website called pravdive-zpravy.cz (“truthful-reports.cz”). “The European Linguistic Council, which is part of the EU, has unanimously decided that as of July the letter Ř is to be abolished,” the report states.

The reason given is that “almost nobody uses this letter in Europe and for anybody who can’t speak Czech, its pronunciation is extremely difficult. The ELC wants to simplify commnications by gradually eliminating problematic letters and sounds,” an alleged linguist identified as “František Měch” explains in the fabricated news item.

Doubrava took no time to verify whether the European Linguistic Council even actually exists. Had he fact-checked the report, he would also have discovered that there is no linguist named František Měch, either.

As news server Manipulátoři.cz reported last year, pravdive-zpravy.cz is a satirical website that uses that particular name as an expert on everything and as a sort of mascot. In one piece he’s a fashion designer, in another he’s a political analyst, elsewhere he represents the Czech Ice Hockey Union at the International Ice Hockey Federation, or he is presented as a transportation expert.

Pravdive-zpravy.cz presents itself as follows: “Original, Prima COOL news reporting, the first to report exclusive information you won’t find anywhere else. Everything published here is 158 % true.”

There’s just one question I have to ask here at the end, and I’m not the only one. How can this guy be a senator?