Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel  praised  Czech  Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek's plan to make a gesture towards Sudeten German anti-fascists who opposed the Nazi regime in Czechoslovakia during WW II. After a meeting with Paroubek, Schuessel said it was the first time that an acknowledgement that collective guilt should not  be  applied  to the German minority had arisen. Paroubek has not yet  disclosed  the  exact  details  of  what  such  a gesture would involve.  He  plans  to  submit  a  proposal  on the matter to the Czech Cabinet. 

 Verbal  sparring  between Paroubek and Czech President Vaclav Klaus over Paroubek's  planned  gesture towards Sudeten Germans who were loyal to pre-war  Czechoslovakia  continues to escalate, reports Lidove noviny (LN). Reacting  to  comments  by Paroubek that Klaus's opposition to his
plan was  probably  due  to  a misunderstanding on the President's part, Klaus fired  back  that  Paroubek appeared to have lost his mind. On his return from  Vienna,  Paroubek  declined  to comment any further, saying that it  was undignified for senior state officials to swap jibes in the media. 

    Commenting  on  the  whole  situation  in  LN,  Lubos  Palata  says Paroubek's  planned  gesture  actually  amounts  to  a  gift  for German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and not Austrian Chancellor Schuessel. This gift must  make  it  to  Schroeder  in time, however, or else it will be opened by  someone  for whom it was not meant, namely [German opposition leader]  Angela  Merkel,  says  Palata.  While  the  gift  will not be a decisive  factor  in Germany's upcoming general elections, it would also be a gesture  towards  Schroeder,  who  has  done  more for Czech-German relations  than  any  chancellor  before him. While it was not Schroeder himself  who  signed  the Czech-German declaration, the treaty's pledges were actually  fulfilled  during  Schroeder's  term, says Palata.