However, Necas, chairman of the senior government Civic Democrats (ODS), resolutely rejected a possible restoration of the pre-war property situation in the Czech borderland.
Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer praised Necas’s words of regret, saying they deserved respect.
Necas’s whole two-day visit has exceeded all expectations, Seehofer added.
On the basis of the decrees issued by then Czechoslovak president President Edvard Benes, about 2.5 million ethnic Germans were transferred from then Czechoslovakia, mainly the border regions (Sudetenland), after World War Two and their property was confiscated.
“The Czech side regrets that, by the forcible expulsion and forced resettlement of Sudeten Germans from the former Czechoslovakia after the war as well as by the expropriation and deprivation of citizenship, much suffering and injustice was inflicted upon innocent people, also in view of the fact that guilt was attributed collectively,” Necas cited the 3rd article of the declaration
The Czech-German Declaration on bilateral relations and their future development, in which the two countries pledged not to burden bilateral relations with controversial issues from the past and focus on future cooperation instead, was signed in 1997 by then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Czech PM Vaclav Klaus.
Necas also highlighted Germans’ contribution to the economic and cultural developments of the Czechoslovak borderland.
He admitted that “only very little of the wrong that occurred in history can be redressed.
“The searching for a joint interpretation of history brings a moral satisfaction, but the pre-war ownership cannot be revived,” said Necas who got a standing ovation for his speech.
“The expression of regret at the suffering of Sudeten Germans, their loss of home, property and relatives deserved respect. We did not expect it. We must also take the internal political situation in the Czech Republic, which is not easy after the recent presidential campaign, into consideration. My expectations have been highly exceeded,” Seehofer told reporters.
Seehofer answered in the negative the CTK question of whether the importance of this gesture may have been downgraded by the fact that Necas only cited a passage from the Czech-German Declaration.
“To say it at a plenary session is much more than if he (Necas) only referred to it,” Seehofer said.
Bernd Posselt, spokesman for the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft, also appreciated Necas´s speech. Necas went even farther in his speech than president Vaclav Havel (Czechoslovak and Czech president in 1989-2003) in the past, Posselt said.
Necas mainly focused on the joint identity of Bavaria and the Czech Republic. He reminded of the joint history and mutual cultural bonds of both neighbouring countries and their inhabitants dated back to the Middle Ages.
Necas has been the first Czech head of government to speak in Bavarian parliament, and his speech therefore aroused great expectations among Bavarian representatives.
Bavarian Parliament chairwoman Barbara Stamm called it a “historic moment at the Bavarian Land Assembly” at the beginning of the session.
At the end of his two-day visit to Bavaria, Necas went to the German Aerospace Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich where the Galileo European navigation satellite system is being developed. The system´s operation centre is seated in Prague.
Necas said the visit had confirmed good Czech-Bavarian relations. “It has also confirmed that we are able to look mainly into the future,” he told reporters.
Author:
ČTK
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