Czech President Petr Pavel has granted his patronage to the Meeting Brno festival, whose organisers have invited the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft (SdL) to hold their congress in Brno, the Presidential Office (KPR) said yesterday.
KPR said this is the third time that Pavel, in office since March 2023, has granted patronage to the festival, whose aim is to foster honest dialogue and the sharing of stories and historical experience.
“We are overjoyed and deeply honoured,” the festival organisers responded on Facebook.
According to KPR, the patronage applies to the festival as a whole. “It is about supporting an environment in which it is possible to speak about history openly and without fear, not about expressing agreement with all its interpretations,” said KPR.
The president’s office added that, regarding Czech-German relations, the president fully aligns with the values of the 1997 Czech-German Declaration, which emphasises reconciliation and focus on future cooperation.
“For our entire team, this is a powerful moment, and an encouragement for our future work,” said the festival organisers. “We see it as an important affirmation of the values the festival adheres to. This support is also a clear signal that seeking common ground and building bridges makes sense.”
The SdL Congress will take place in Brno from 22-25 May. It is being held in the Czech Republic for the first time, at the invitation of the Meeting Brno festival.
Senate Speaker Milos Vystrcil (ODS) has also granted his patronage to the festival. “[Vystrcil] considers the promotion of dialogue and reconciliation in society to be important values,” his spokeswoman Sabina Netrvalova told CTK. Vystrcil is expected to comment on his involvement at a press conference later today.
Last week, the Chamber of Deputies approved, with the votes of the governing coalition, a resolution opposing the holding of the SdL congress in Brno and calling for the event to be cancelled. The vote on the congress was initiated by the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), a junior partner in the coalition government.
“The Chamber of Deputies calls on the organisers of this event, in particular the Meeting Brno association and the leadership of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft, to refrain from holding it on the territory of the Czech Republic,” the resolution stated.
Opposition MPs boycotted the vote, and instead left in their seats a banner with the message “You won’t pay off your debts by inciting hatred.”
In a statement to CTK, Bernd Posselt, leader of the Sudeten Germans, descsribed the resolution as “a farce”. According to the organisers of the Meeting Brno festival, the MPs’ decision is a manifestation of fear of their own past. They stated that the SdL congress would take place as planned.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) previously said that he did not consider the congress to be a good idea, and that no one from the government would attend. The prime minister said he hoped the event would not provoke conflict between people or strain Czech relations with Germany.
Bavarian Minister-President Markus Soder will attend the congress in Brno, and then go on to Prague to meet President Pavel.
“The President will receive Bavarian Minister-President Markus Soder in Prague on Sunday afternoon,” confirmed KPR yesterday. “The President invited him for a reciprocal visit during his trip to Bavaria in May 2023.” They are expected to discuss security, as well as strengthening European competitiveness and resilience.
Pavel has attended the Meeting Brno festival in the past. In 2023, he participated in a debate with Slovak President Zuzana Caputova on the state of Czech-Slovak relations 30 years after the division of Czechoslovakia.
