Paroubek fails to get backing from Slovakia on reconciliatory gesture

Slovakia's Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda said on Wednesday Slovakia will not back a plan by his Czech counterpart Jiri Paroubek to make a reconciliatory gesture to anti-fascist Sudeten Germans. Mr Paroubek announced on Monday that he had prepared a plan to compensate ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia who were expelled and lost their property in the years following the Second World War, despite the fact that they opposed Nazi Germany. Mr Dzurinda says Slovakia looks to the future and not to the past and will not re-open complicated chapters in the countries history, such as the Benes decrees, which sanctioned the expulsions in the post-war years.

On the home front, the Prime Minister's plan has met with anger from the two main opposition parties, the centre-right Civic Democrats and the Communists. President Vaclav Klaus has likewise rejected the idea, describing it as potentially dangerous.