Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100Wed, 22 Jul 2026 10:12:32 +0200https://english.radio.cz/czech-german-relations-under-strain-8059422© 2026 Radio Prague International This week the "war of words" between the Czech Republic and Austria unexpectedly spilled over into neighbouring Germany as well. After exchanging insults with Austria's extreme right politician Joerg Haider, whom he called a "post-fascist", the Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman suddenly fired into the ranks of the Sudeten Germans, ethnic Germans who were expelled en masse from Czechoslovakia after World War Two. In an interview for the Austrian magazine PROFIL, the Czech Prime Minister called Sudeten Germans "traitors" and added that one must not forget that they were a fifth column for Hitler. The remarks drew rage from political conservatives and Sudeten Germans in Germany who demand either a formal retraction or an apology. In recent years tensions over the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans have calmed, so many observers are wondering whether the upcoming parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic could not be behind Mr Zeman's latest outburst, a question that Radio Prague's Daniela Lazarova put to Petr Brod from the Czech section of the BBC. encr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas)webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) https://english.radio.cz/sites/default/files/images/4f5197446b1f6808606b2a0aab5e5a67.png?timestamp=1583150525 https://english.radio.cz/czech-german-relations-under-strain-8059422 Radio Prague International Radio Prague International radio.prague.int@gmail.com clean 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9