Just before it starts, a motorcycle policeman with a roaring engine quickly shoos two pedestrians across the street at the Iron Bridge, who were apparently strolling a bit too leisurely along the banks of the Danube. Then it becomes state-supporting. As if switched on, a helicopter suddenly circles over the heads of dozens of journalists and photographers who are waiting for Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala at the entrance to the House of Bavarian History in Regensburg.
The other prime minister, Markus Söder (CSU), is ready on a red carpet to receive his guest, together with Regensburg’s mayor Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer (SPD). It feels like Söder is constantly in Regensburg at the moment. In fact, the two had the pleasure not even two weeks ago when Söder announced here that Regensburg would get a state theater.
The city is also a suitable place to deepen Bavarian-Czech relations. Not only because the Bavarian-Czech state exhibition “Baroque! Bavaria and Bohemia” is opening there in the Museum of Bavarian History, which will be on display in Regensburg until October and then moves to Prague. South Bohemia and the neighboring districts of Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate have been working together in partnership for a long time. The Czech Republic is Bavaria’s fifth largest trading partner.
In Regensburg, the relationship is deepened with a well-timed day: Fiala drives up in his state limousine, the car door opens, the car door closes, men smile at each other, hands are shaken. Photographers and cameramen jostle to an antique desk on which the state government’s guest book is laid out. It helps that the weather is really good. No trace of the famous Regensburg fog. Söder’s ministers are lined up next to the table and book.
But the gentlemen (and a few ladies) aren’t just here for fun. Fiala signs himself in the golden book, then he shakes himself through 17 hands, accompanied by Söder, who explains to him who he is looking at.
This ends the public part for now. It goes to work in the foyer of the museum, the cabinet meeting takes place at the foot of the Löwenbräu lion under the diamond roof, white and blue vaulted, so to speak, more Bavarian is not possible.
When Söder and Fiala step out of the magic ball again for a press conference, the mood is still good, although it’s now getting down to business. It’s a historic day, says Söder. For the first time, a Prime Minister from the Czech Republic is a guest at a cabinet meeting. They are “closely and difficultly” connected through a past of atrocities, war and border demarcations. “But today we’re pretty much the best of friends,” says Söder. “We no longer look at the past, but at the present and future,” agrees Fiala.
Relations between Bavaria and the Czech Republic are considered good, but as is the case with relationships: you have to cultivate them. The corona pandemic had shown this impressively, when borders were suddenly raised again, mutual distrust prevailed, while at the same time the border commuters (“22,000 daily from the Czech Republic alone”, Söder knows) showed how closely East Bavaria and Bohemia are linked. And no discussion about the ailing German railway infrastructure can do without the notorious Munich-Prague route, which urgently needs to be electrified. “It’s really difficult how tough it is,” says Söder.
Pupils roar over from the Danube steamer
When asked about the end of nuclear energy in Germany, he repeated what he had been saying for weeks: “It’s a serious mistake that Germany is making. We’ll be glad that the Czech Republic continues to produce nuclear power and also supplies it to Germany.” Do the Lower Bavarian and Upper Palatinate communities near the border, who were not quite so euphoric about the planned new reactors in South Bohemia, see it that way?
There is no more time for a discussion, because we continue straight to the historic Wurstkuchl (in English: sausage kitchen) on the Steinerne Brücke. On the way there, they both bathe a little in the crowd. Two young men muddle past the securities and ask Söder for a selfie. Sure. Then a Danube steamer drives by, from which a school class shouts and claps. It looks as if Söder’s PR department had specifically set it as an item on the agenda. But only works that way.
Speaking of PR. The Bavarian opposition also has something to say about the Fiala visit. A state exhibition and beautiful pictures alone are not enough, says Florian Siekmann, European policy spokesman for the Greens in the state parliament, and calls for investments in cross-border local transport and reliable financing for civil society actors in the region. “Söder does not do justice to all these topics if only the governments talk to each other.”
It comes down to interpersonal relationships. Fiala also emphasizes this several times during his visit. Or as Söder puts it: “We have the cell phone numbers and call each other.”