Bavarian politicians disappointed with Zeman's election

Berlin, Jan 29 (CTK) - Bavarian and Sudeten German politicians first expressed disappointment and then they made diplomatic statements about the hope of good future cooperation in reaction to the victory of Milos Zeman in the Czech direct presidential election on Saturday.

In the election runoff, Zeman attacked the critical statements of his rival, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, on the postwar Benes Decrees and the transfer of Sudeten Germans, and the anti-German sentiment was used in the campaign.

Bavarian and Sudeten German politicians nevertheless said they believe that Zeman as president will not deal with "the prejudices of the past."

Ackermann-Gemeinde head Martin Kastler, member of the ruling Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU), wrote on Twitter shortly after the result of the Czech presidential election was announcedthat Zeman based his election triumph on hatred.

The immediate reaction of German Federation of Expellees head Erika Steinbach was that Zeman is "a repugnant nationalist." But on Monday her office told DAPD news agency that Steinbach did not want to make any comment on the Czech presidential election.

German Landsmannschaft head Bernd Posselt told DAPD that Zeman won the election and Germans should try to have a dialogue without prejudices with him.

Posselt said unfair tones could be heard in Zeman's campaign.

He said Zeman often changed his mind and was unpredictable.

But Posselt pointed out that it was the family of outgoing President Vaclav Klaus who started using "anti-German racism" in the campaign.

Bavarian Minister for EU Affairs Emilia Mueller (CSU) said she believes President-Elect Zeman will not make an issue of the prejudices of the past but that he will help develop a joint future and partnership with Bavaria.

Mueller said Czech-Bavarian relations were very stable and there is no reason to fear that the Czech presidential election result would challenge them.

Bavarian Labour Minister Christine Haderthauer (CSU) welcomed the fact that Schwarzenberg won 45 percent of the vote despite his unpopular statements on the Benes Decrees.

Haderthauer said this indicated that nearly half of the Czech population is prepared to intensively deal with the fate of the Sudeten Germans.

Haderthauer defends the interests of the Sudeten Germans in the Bavarian government.

Most of the ethnic Germans who had to move out from Czech border regions after World War Two currently live in Bavaria that borders on western and southern Bohemia.

The decrees issued by Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes provided for the confiscation of the property of collaborators, traitors, ethnic Germans and Hungarians, except for those who themselves suffered under the Nazis. They also formed a basis for the transfer of the two ethnic groups from Czechoslovakia after the war.