Austria targets Schwarzenberg

Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has been attacked by the Austrian press after rebuffing renewed calls for a repeal of the Beneš Decrees, the infamous laws that saw the confiscation of property and the deportation of thousands of ethnic Germans and Hungarians following World War II.

Austrian news outlets named him "the atomic count" after Schwarzenberg refused to repeal the laws and voiced support for the Temelín nuclear plant in south Bohemia.

"He used to speak about a common Austrian-Czech nation, and now he works for the consciously nationalistic anti-European politics of the Czech Republic," Die Presse wrote.

Furthermore, it said Schwarzenberg had mutated from a rights protector into the "the Good Soldier Švejk" - a famous Czech satirical character.

The criticism came after the foreign minister, who emigrated to Austria after the communist coup of 1948, said a retroactive repeal of the decrees would be "simply unrealistic."

It would "result in a legal process that is incalculable," he said on a ministerial visit to the country July 18. "[But] I never doubted that what happened after World War II was an injustice - just like what happened between 1938 and 1945 was an injustice," he said.

The decrees were decided by Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš during the Czechoslovak government's term in exile in London during World War II. They were formally approved by the Czech Parliament March 5, 1946.

The Beneš Decrees laid the ground for the deportation of some 3 million Germans, Austrians and Hungarians and the expropriation of their property because many had supported the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.

The continued existence of the decrees is also supported by President Václav Klaus, who feared their validity might be challenged in the European Court of Justice under the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty in late 2009.

He obtained a political guarantee the Lisbon Treaty would not touch property rights arising from the war. He also obtained a Czech opt-out from the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The attack on Schwarzenberg is not the first time the government has faced pressure to annul the decrees, with German and Austrian authorities calling for their repeal for many years.

Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer warned against "exceeding hopes and expectations" for such a move and announced plans in May to travel to the Czech Republic in the fall to enter into a Bavarian-Czech dialogue on the issue. Seehofer said it was time for a Bavarian prime minister to visit and that the decrees would be a focal point for discussions.

Seehofer, who would be the first Bavarian prime minister to visit since the war, also plans to take Sudeten-German representatives with him. Sudeten Germans, or ethnic Germans who lived in the Czech lands, make up a large portion of Bavaria's population. 

His announcement came after growing protests from local Sudeten German groups.

"Neither Beneš statutes nor the Beneš Decrees fit into Europe's community of values," said Bavarian Welfare Minister Christine Haderthauer when requesting the annulment in May.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Sudeten German ethnic group, Bernd Posselt, said the group would continue their determined fight against the decrees.

It will never be accepted that "these unjust decrees will continue to persist" in the Czech Republic, he said. His sentiments were echoed by the federal chairman of the Sudeten-German association, Franz Pany, who said the Czechs "would have to pay attention to the dark aspects of their past."

- Caroline Korsawe and Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Gabriella Hold can be reached at
ghold@praguepost.com