Rapprochement between Prague and Berlin
On his current visit to the Czech Republic, Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the first German President to honour the memory of the Czechoslovakians who killed Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi architect of the Holocaust, in 1942. The two countries are ready to show mutual understanding, Czech observers conclude.
Prague should also make concessions
It's high time for the Czechs to meet the Germans halfway, Deník notes:
“Steinmeier's admirable gesture has brought Czech-German relations one big step forward again. Our great heroes have thus also become heroes for the Germans. We should ask ourselves whether we too couldn't take a similar step. For example we could recognise the fact that we Czechs, in addition to war heroes, also had post-war criminals who killed German men, women and children during peacetime. We should call post-war murderers murderers and no longer hide these deeds behind the nebulous 'right to retribution'.”
Look ahead too
In addition to the beneficial process of coming to terms with the past, Berlin and Prague should focus on joint plans for the future far more often, Hospodářské noviny puts in:
“It's good that the Czech Republic has managed to settle issues pertaining to the past with Germany thanks to the German-Czech Declaration. But for example it's not good that the annual debates and meetings of the Czech-German Discussion Forum focus largely on the past and not on a shared future. In reality only the business sector conducts such future-oriented discussions, because the economies of our two countries are closely entwined. But that's where the discussion ends. If they were extended, relatively Eurosceptic Czechs could be won over for the future of Europe, which is being shaped above all in Berlin.”