Poolse premier Tusk over dood Tsjechische oud-president Vaclav Havel (en)
Václav Havel was a great European. If we consider de Gasperi, Adenauer, Schuman and Monnet the ‘founding fathers’ of modern-day Europe, then surely Havel was among those who allowed Central Europe to be reunited with the rest of the continent. We can therefore say that he was one of the ‘fathers’ of its latest unification.
As a young man he experienced the hopes of the Prague Spring, and as a mature man he worked on Charter 77. Several years later the Velvet Revolution forced him to assume supreme responsibility and become head of the Czech state.
The price for his outspokenness had been a gagging order and even prison. But he knew it was worth it. This was his ‘power of the powerless’ - to quote the title of his essay that became the manifesto of the democratic opposition in the Eastern Bloc.
In all his public roles Václav Havel remained an intellectual and a moralist in the world of politics. He used to say that politics needed fresh air so it was no use turning one’s back on it. Whoever says politics is dirty, he insisted, has made it so himself.
When I welcomed him to Krakow on 4th June 2009 - the 20th anniversary of our liberating revolutions - I saw the face of a hero of that profound epoch and also a symbol of what was best in the generation of the old dissidents, whose minds had always been in sync with their hearts.
Today, upon his passing, we clearly realise how much Europe needs Europeans like Havel. He was one of those who let us preserve our European dreams, one of those who prevented communism from severing our links to Europe.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
The Polish Presidency has decided that all meetings of the EU Council on Monday, 19th December will begin with a minute’s silence in honour of Václav Havel.
data publikacji: 18-12-2011