Why the Czech government put relations with Germany at risk and who may be behind it
On 22 May, the first-ever congress of Sudeten Germans is set to begin in the Czech city of Brno.
In a recent resolution, the Czech parliament expressed its opposition to holding the gathering.
The governing coalition appears to be appealing to far-right voters while also distracting attention from government decisions that contradict Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s campaign promises.
Read more about how the Czech government is trying to exploit a sensitive historical issue and the potential consequences of doing so in the article by European Pravda co-founder Yurii Panchenko: Saying "no" to reconciliation with Germans? How Czech politics is fighting its own past and whether Russia is involved.
After 1945, the Sudeten Germans were deported under one of the Beneš Decrees – the name given to 143 constitutional acts adopted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile led by President Edvard Beneš. These decrees established the constitutional framework of the country after its liberation.
It is estimated that the decrees stripped around 3 million Sudeten Germans and 120,000 Slovak Hungarians of their citizenship and property.
More than 80 years after the end of World War II, the issue remains politically sensitive. In fact, parts of the Beneš Decrees are still formally in force today.
As a result, ethnic Germans and Hungarians were unable to seek the return of property confiscated by the communist regime through the restitution processes later carried out in both Czechia and Slovakia.
The emotionally charged issue of restitution for Germans has at times produced unexpected political consequences. In 2013, for example, it was used by "Putin ally" Miloš Zeman during his successful presidential campaign.
It is therefore unsurprising that plans by the Sudeten German Association – an organisation representing descendants of Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia – to hold its congress in Brno for the first time in history sparked outrage.
The strongest opposition came from the far-right, despite the fact that the association does not demand the repeal of the Beneš Decrees or the return of confiscated property. Its focus is preserving the cultural heritage of the Sudeten Germans.
The controversy quickly became much louder than many had expected.
This was despite the fact that the Sudeten German Association had announced its plans as early as last year during its previous congress. Moreover, the organisation had been invited to hold the event in Czechia by the local initiative Meeting in Brno.
It was entirely predictable that the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party of parliamentary speaker Tomio Okamura would oppose the event. SPD lawmakers were the ones who initiated the parliamentary resolution condemning the congress.
The bigger question is why other coalition parties supported it above all the ANO party of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
Babiš surely understands that he is personally creating tensions with Germany, one of Czechia’s key strategic partners.
It is possible that the opposition is correct in arguing that the coalition hopes the scandal will distract public attention from some of its own unpopular decisions.
Under pressure from allied countries, Babiš’s government has been forced to reconsider defence spending levels after the approved state budget allocated less than 2% of GDP to defence. That, in turn, would require cuts or revisions to social spending, despite Babiš having won last year’s parliamentary elections partly on promises to increase it.
One possible consequence of the controversy surrounding the Sudeten German congress is that it may strengthen not Babiš’s ANO party, but rather Okamura’s SPD.
SPD is the only openly pro-Russian force in the Czech parliament. The harshest critics of the congress have also been among the politicians most active in spreading Russian propaganda narratives.
There are also numerous reports that large-scale protests against the German congress are being prepared in Brno. The scale and level of organisation appear far beyond what SPD’s usual demonstrations would suggest.
This has led some observers to suspect that Russia may also be playing a role in the conflict surrounding the congress in Brno.