In 2002 , German chancellor Gerhard Schröder cancelled an official visit to Prague after Zeman called the ethnic Germans in pre-war Czechoslovakia " Hitler 's Fifth column " . Zeman stated that " the Czechs and Slovaks were doing the Sudeten Germans a favor by expelling them , because they granted them their wish to go Heim ins Reich " . Later , Zeman called Karel Schwarzenberg , his rival in the presidential campaign of 2013 , a " sudeťák " ( Sudeten German ) , leading the Austrian '' Die Presse '' to ascribe Zeman 's victory to an " unprecedented anti-German dirty campaign . " On 26 May 2014 , during festivities celebrating the independence of Israel , Zeman said " So let me quote one of their Islamic sacred texts to support this statement : " A tree says , there is a Jew behind me , come and kill him . A stone says , there is a Jew behind me , come and kill him . " I would criticize those calling for the killing of Arabs , but I do not know of any movement calling for mass murdering of Arabs . However , I know of one anti-civilisation movement calling for the mass murder of Jews . " When criticized and urged to apologise by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , his office replied " President Zeman definitely does not intend to apologise . For the president would consider it blasphemy to apologise for the quotation of a sacred Islamic text . " Zeman 's comments on the Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting and " Islamic ideology " in June 2014 caused a diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia . The diplomatic source said : " The Saudis had an exact list of what Zeman said on the issue in the past . The list had several pages . The Czech ambassador was in a very unpleasant situation as the protest had never gone so far before . " On 17 November 2014 , the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution , thousands of Czechs took part in a demonstration against Zeman , protesting his pro-Russian stance and vulgar language . Eggs were also thrown , with one accidentally hitting the German president , Joachim Gauck ; German officials said it was just a piece of eggshell . On the same day , a group of about 60 people held a counter-demonstration in support of president Zeman
Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting
Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting
Miloš Zeman