'To Me, He’s a Liar and Fraud' - Slovak Student Refuses to Shake President Pellegrini’s Hand at Academic Awards

In Slovakia, 19-year-old student Simon Omanik refused to shake hands with President Peter Pellegrini at the award ceremony for the winners of international subject olympiads. The boy was wearing a ribbon in the colours of the Ukrainian flag and in his comments to journalists about his action mentioned the war in Ukraine, Denník N reports.

On Monday, 13 January, Slovak President Pellegrini received 35 students who had won gold, silver and bronze medals at international subject Olympiads.

When it was the turn of Simon Omanik, who wore a ribbon in Ukrainian colours on his chest, he reacted to the president's outstretched hand with a dismissive gesture. 

‘I don't consider my gesture to be a manifestation of arrogance, Peter Pellegrini shouldn't have even been at the award ceremony in the first place,’ Omanik said.

According to him, instead of hotels in Hanoi, the state could have supported education and the conditions for the Student Olympiad.

He explained that he believes Pellegrini became president by deceiving and lying to people.

‘In addition to the evergreen populist promises of cheap food and cheap gas that populists repeat in every election, he also accused his opponent of sending us to war in Ukraine. He would never have sent us to war, and if he had, he would not have had any rational justification for doing so. It was a lie and an attempt to appeal to the lowest human instincts of fear and perhaps even anti-Ukrainian sentiment in some parts of the Slovak population,’ Omanik said.

He added that he did not think it would be right to shake hands with such a person or communicate with him because he disagreed with him and considered him a ‘fraud and a liar’.

In turn, pro-Russian Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who recently visited Putin personally, said that if he were President Peter Pellegrini, he would take the award away from the schoolboy.