Not even across the threshold! Collaboration… Will Pavel Posselt be honored? They are already seeing red in the Czech Republic

KDU-ČSL Member of Parliament Šimon Heller from the South Bohemian Region suggests to President Petr Pavlov that on October 28 this year, during the celebration of the founding of the Czechoslovak state, he should honor the head of the Sudetenland National Team, Bernd Posselt.

The long-time leader of the association of former so-called Sudeten Germans, who were resettled in Germany after the Second World War on the basis of the decree of President Edvard Beneš, is a controversial figure to say the least.

For many years he was a member of the European Parliament, where in 2003 he voted against the admission of the Czech Republic to the European Union. In the past, he repeatedly challenged Beneš’s presidential decrees, which are still a valid part of Czech law. He declared, for example, that it belongs to the “garbage dump of history”.

However, according to Heller, a member of the People’s Republic of Lithuania, Posselt is advocating for the improvement of Czech-German relations. President Pavel has the same view, who last year personally thanked the head of the Sudeten Germans in Bavaria for bringing Germans and Czechs closer together. This attitude therefore suggests that Pavel could comply with the MP’s proposal.

Posselt’s Czech supporters claim that it was he who ruled out possible property claims against the Czech Republic for displacement. A number of historians, lawyers and politicians, on the other hand, believe that the possible annulment of the Beneš decrees, which Posselt is calling for, would open the way for lawsuits to recover property.

ParlamentníListy.cz asked politicians from across the spectrum in a survey whether it is a good idea to award Bernd Posselt with a state award and whether it would lead to an improvement in Czech-German relations.

“The world has gone mad and the politicians of the five-coalition are at the head of the peloton. It’s a misunderstanding of our history, a mockery and a stupid attempt that only stirs up emotions unnecessarily,” said the Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and the head of the shadow government of the ANO movement Karel Havlíček.

The ODS deputy offered a different view Karel Krejza, who, however, also disagrees with the award proposal. “I personally met with the displaced Germans and I did not notice any efforts to revise the decrees. The mentioned decrees are being misused for personal political goals. I would say that the time has not yet come to honor Bernd Posselt and rather it may worsen relations,” he said.

“The SPD movement does not agree with the proposal of the KDU-ČSL to award the chairman of the Sudeten German Landsmanschaft Posselt. Awards are given as a symbol of appreciation of the values ​​that the given society shares – for example, bravery or hard work. Mr. Posselt and his organization are the gravediggers of the German Nazis, falsely rewrite history and strive for the return of property in the Czech Republic that was rightfully confiscated as elsewhere in Europe on the basis of the Postim agreement. The Germans owe us 15,000 billion kroner in reparations, which our governments refuse to exact from them in order not to anger people like Mr. Posselt. So the award gives only one signal – the government parties appreciate the distortion of history, the burial of Nazis and their claims to the property that was confiscated from them for the murders, crimes and damage they did to our country during the 2nd world war. Even today’s laws recognize complicity and the approval of criminal acts – and criminals’ property is confiscated even today,” states the head of the SPD movement Tomio Okamura.

People’s MEP Tomas Zdechovsky he did not express an opinion on the possible awarding of the award. “I personally do not comment on any awards proposals. I am of the opinion that it is good that the Czechs and Germans have been reconciled. And thanks to everyone who contributed to it – Havel, Klaus, Merkel,” said Zdechovský.

“Mr. Posselt is a high-ranking member of the German People’s Party. I see it as an attempt by the Czech People’s Party to reward a deserving fellow party member. Honestly, I would prefer if they sent him a bottle of still wine and didn’t abuse the state award,” the pirate MEP criticized the proposal Mikuláš Peksa.

According to the head of the KSČM and MEP Kateryna Konečné is the proposal of folklorist Heller to award Posselt disgusting. “The proposal of the KDU-ČSL deputy is scandalous. Especially in these days, when we commemorate the liberation of our homeland by the allies, led by the Red Army, from Hitler’s Germany, to which Sudeten Germans formed the fifth column! But the People’s Party systematically works for the benefit of various foreign lobby groups. While in our country they raise the retirement age, reduce pensions, they would like to hand over assets worth billions to Liechtenstein. I am unequivocally against the rewriting of history, which is the purpose of this disgusting proposal, among other things. After all, I was the only one of the Czech MEPs who opposed the purposive interpretation of history!” responded Konečná.

Each legislator has according to senators Zdenek Hraby the right to suggest anyone. “I respect that, but if it were up to me, Mr. Posselt certainly does not deserve the Czech award. I am glad that the relations between Czechs and Germans are now perhaps at the best historical level – also because both national and state borders are respected. And I believe that any public exhibition of people like Mr. Posselt damages those relationships. The best thing for Czech-German relations would be if Mr. Posselt never had to deal with it in our public space,” Hraba thinks.

“This proposal corresponds to the positions of the KDU-ČSL, whose leading representatives participate in or send greetings to the conventions of the Sudeten German Landsmanschaft. The Beneš decrees are an insurmountable landmark, the questioning of which would lead to a far-reaching property and land national disaster in the form of restitution to the descendants of the Nazi machine. It is nonsense that is born in the heads of KDU-ČSL politicians and that would lead to a fundamental deterioration of mutual Czech-German relations. On the contrary, there is a need to revive Germany’s claims for war reparations against the Czech Republic,” the SPD deputy is convinced Radovan Vích.

The head of the Přísaha movement clearly sees the whole thing Robert Schlachta. “In my opinion, such a person is a traitor and KDU-ČSL should publicly distance itself from him. Although, when I think of other historical statements of some politicians of this party, it doesn’t really surprise me,” he replied to the editors.

“I consider it a useless topic. Mr. Posselt did not deserve the Czech Republic,” the chairman of SOCDEM stated succinctly and clearly Michal Šmarda.

“If the people’s goal is for the KDU-ČSL to completely disappear from the Czech political scene, then it cannot be evaluated other than as an excellent idea. This is the way to lose even the few remaining Lidove voters. Keep going, brothers and sisters!” said the first vice-president of the Tricolor Petr Stepanek.

The chairman of Svobodny definitely does not agree either Libor Vondráček. “If the president really grants Posselt a state award, he will prove that the taking of the relic cross to Germany on March 15 was no accident, but deliberate and malicious intent,” he said.

“I still think it’s some belated, unsuccessful April Fool’s joke by KDU-ČSL. We can immediately give the order of TGM in memoriam to Konrad Henlein. Posselt’s main political goal is to achieve a revision of the post-war arrangement of property relations in our borderland through the cancellation of the Beneš decrees. To put it simply, they are trying to turn our citizens’ property and transfer it to the ownership of their Sudeten comrades. If someone suggests such a person for our state award, then in my eyes he is a pure collaborator. I think this is the last nail in the coffin of the people who have become an absolutely unelectable party. On behalf of PRO, I clearly say that we will categorically defend the validity of the Beneš decrees and will not allow the property-legal relations of our citizens to be threatened at any cost. And Mr. Posselt should never even cross our threshold,” said the head of the PRO party uncompromisingly Jindrich Rajchl.

“This proposal completely confirms the long-term inclination of the People’s Party and other parties in the government coalition to support Sudeten German revanchism and the demands of justly displaced German collaborators with Hitler for restitution and the cancellation of President Beneš’s decrees. It is part of the process of unacceptable relativization and rehabilitation of Nazism, the German occupation of the Czech lands and their crime. At a time when we are commemorating the 79th anniversary of our liberation from the horrors that the Germans, including the Sudeten Germans, committed in our homeland, this is particularly disgusting,” said the SPD deputy Jiří Kobza.

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