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The Beneš decrees (; ; ; ) is a current popular term (officially they are called Decrees of the President of the Republic - dekrety presidenta republiky) for a series of laws enacted by the Czechoslovak government of exile during World War II in absence of Czechoslovak parliament (see details in Czechoslovakia: World War II (1939 - 1945)). Today, the term is most frequently used for the part of the decrees that dealt with the status of Germans and Hungarians in post-war Czechoslovakia and has become a symbol for the whole controversial issue of expulsion of Germans after World War II from Czechoslovakia and its ramifications in today's politics.