A debate in the Chamber of Deputies yesterday on the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft congress, which is to be held later this month in Brno, ended with no resolution after representatives of the five parliamentary opposition groups requested two-hour pauses based on an agreement among all groups in parliament.
Following a motion by Marek Benda, the parliamentary group leader of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the Chamber subsequently removed all remaining items from the agenda.
The debate on the congress was pushed through on Tuesday by the coalition government, on the initiative of SPD leader and parliamentary speaker Tomio Okamura. The discussion was supposed to continue yesterday evening, but following an agreement among the clubs, the coalition gave priority to debating three bills.
Based on a draft resolution by ANO, SPD and the Motorists, the outcome of the Chamber’s debate on the congress would be to reject the hosting of the Sudeten German congress in the Czech Republic, and to call on the organisers to give up plans to hold the gathering.
Benda described the debate on the stance toward the Sudeten German congress as “super-populist.” During the debate, opposition MPs argued that the coalition was seeking an external enemy, and that in their view, the congress is part of a process of Czech-German reconciliation.
Opposition party leaders stated unanimously that the pauses in the debate were requested based on an agreement among all groups that the Chamber’s session would not continue last night. According to Marian Jurecka, leader of the Christian Democrats’ parliamentary group, the parliament could potentially return to the debate sometime next week.
The lower house adjourned the session, following Benda’s motion, with 101 of the 113 present MPs voting in favour. Two ANO MPs and seven SPD MPs voted against it.
The SdL congress will take place from 22-25 May in the Brno Exhibition Centre, as part of the Meeting Brno festival. It will be the first such event in the Czech Republic. Some people protested the event in April at a meeting of the Brno City Assembly, and two weeks later at a meeting of the South Moravian Regional Assembly.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) stated earlier yesterday that he does not consider the planned congress in Brno to be a good idea, and said no-one from the government will attend. He added that he hoped the event would not provoke conflicts between people or place a strain on Czech-German relations.
In February, following a meeting with Bavarian Minister-President Markus Soder in Munich, Babis said that the Czech Republic viewed the congress as a civic initiative, and that the Czech government was not intending to address the event.
Sudeten German leader Bernd Posselt told Bavarian public radio station BR that the congress will definitely take place in Brno. David Macek of the Meeting Brno organisation, which invited the Sudeten Germans to the Moravian capital, also stated that the congress will take place even if the lower house calls for its cancellation.
Before World War II, more than three million Germans lived in Czechoslovakia. After the war about 90% of them were forcibly expelled, on the basis of the decrees issued by Czechoslovak president President Edvard Benes. Only anti-fascists, people from mixed families or experts essential to the economy were allowed to stay. The first organised transport of expelled Germans left for the American occupation zone on 25 January 1946.
In total, about 2.5 million ethnic Germans were transferred from Czechoslovakia, mainly the border regions known as the Sudetenland. According to a Czech-German commission of historians, between 15,000 and 30,000 people lost their lives in the process. During the preceding more than six years of Nazi rule, around 320,000 to 350,000 inhabitants of the former Czechoslovakia perished.
Relations between the Sudeten Germans and the Czech Republic have improved significantly in recent years, thanks in part to the SdL having removed references from its statutes to the return of property confiscated from Sudeten Germans during their postwar expulsion from Czechoslovakia. The Czech side has also taken a number of conciliatory steps. In a Munich speech in 2013, Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas expressed the Czech Republic’s regret over the injustices inflicted upon Sudeten Germans following World War II.
Today, roughly 25,000 people in the Czech Republic identify as German or of mixed ethnicity. Approximately 200 representatives of the German minority in the Czech Republic are planning to attend the congress. They want to present their activities and traditions, according to a press release by Martin Dzingel, executive director of the Czech Assembly of German Associations, which brings together about 20 associations and supports a network of 13 Czech-German meeting centres. According to the association, attendance is likely to be lower due to the criticism that has been directed towards the congress.
