Analysis
Economic Security
Why Ukraine’s Fate May Depend on Beijing
4 November 2025
It is a detail, but an illustrative one: in the 178 pages of the coalition agreement of the German Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats, 39 words are devoted to German-French cooperation; German-Polish cooperation is given 31 words; not a single line about the Czech Republic.
This may well be because Czech-German relations are described as problem-free to the extent that they are tasteless and odourless, and therefore, without any political content. Even in the days of the pro-Prague Chancellor Angela Merkel, Czech politicians could not ask for something that would fundamentally advance Czech-German relations.
Should the new Czech political representation come up with an idea now, it will be more difficult. As Renata Altová, the head of the Bundestag group in charge of cooperation with Central Europe, explains to ordinary Germans and most politicians, the Czech Republic is merging into one Visegrad group with Poland and Hungary.
Peer Pressure
Warsaw and Budapest are certainly not behaving like ‘the good boy next door’ towards their German partner, as one German analyst characterised the Czech position towards Berlin. One of the main reasons for the rhetorical calm between Prague and Berlin is the Czech-German declaration, which, while legally and financially putting an end to the past, actually framed and trapped the Czech-German political debate in history.
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