Main focus of Monday, December 19, 2011

Václav Havel, the velvet revolutionary

The people loved Havel, who served them as president from 1989 to 2003. (©AP)

Václav Havel died on Sunday at the age of 75. Politicians across the world have paid tribute to the Czech dramatist, dissident and later president, who became the symbolic figure of the democratic transition after 1989. Without people like Havel a free Europe is unthinkable, commentators write, praising the former leader as a great politician and intellectual explorer.

Pioneer for a free Europe

Without visionaries like Václav Havel there would be no free Europe, writes the Christian-liberal daily Salzburger Nachrichten: "That Havel experienced this at all, that he wasn't murdered but only imprisoned and after his show trial, was only thanks to his late birth. His forerunners in the 1940s and 50s ended their lives in the execution places of Prague and Budapest, Warsaw and East Berlin, Sofia and Bucharest. The death of this great European gives us pause to reflect on what we have achieved in Europe. Freedom and prosperity. The absence of war and state brutality. Security and the possibility to take our livese into our own hands and shape our own destinies: these achievements which we take so much for granted now and therefore underrate are thanks to the efforts of visionary leaders like Václav Havel." (19/12/2011)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » Social movements, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Andreas Koller

A discoverer of himself

The Czech author Monika Zgustova, who translated Havel's works into Spanish, celebrates the Czech ex-president and poet as an explorer: "That was Havel: For him the intellectual, linguistic, ethical and philosophical questions always came first. His entire body of work - starting with the first visual poems of the 1960s known as typograms, his avant-garde plays and essays from his times as a dissident and culminating with his last play - is full of these questions. Havel was always interested in experimenting. He wanted to go a step further than had already been taken - both in his books and plays and his function as president. He always had to discover something new - and at the same time discover himself." (19/12/2011)

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More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Stage, » Czech Republic, » Slovakia
All available articles from » Monika Zgustová

Europe needs Václav Havel

British historian Timothy Garton Ash honours former Czech president Václav Havel as the director of a play that changed history: "Havel was a defining figure of late 20th-century Europe. He was not just a dissident; he was the epitome of the dissident, as we came to understand that novel term. He was not just the leader of a velvet revolution; he was the leader of the original velvet revolution, the one that gave us a label applied to many other non-violent mass protests since 1989. Havel was not just a president; he was the founding president of what is now the Czech Republic. He was not just a European; he was a European who, with the eloquence of a professional playwright and the authority of a former political prisoner, reminded us of the historical and moral dimensions of the European project. Looking at the mess that project is in today, one can only cry: 'Havel! Europe hath need of thee.'" (19/12/2011)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Social movements, » Czech Republic, » Europe
All available articles from » Timothy Garton Ash

A great politician from a small country

Václav Havel, who died on Sunday, was one of the greatest politicians to have emerged in Central Europe, the conservative daily Lidové noviny writes, focusing on Havel's foreign policy. "Just as Havel was a staunch Atlanticist, he was also a committed European. In the referendum that took place shortly before he left Prague Castle, Havel - unlike his successor Václav Klaus - spoke out clearly in favour of the Czech Republic joining the EU. 'It seems to me that any talk of a loss of sovereignty in this context is inappropriate', he said. 'Certainly, we will lose some sovereignty in the process, namely that very part we should lose. However on the other hand the sovereignty of all upright citizens will be strengthened.' It would be good not to forget these words today. ... Havel was a great statesman. So great that Czechoslovakia and the even smaller Czech Republic were always too small for him." (19/12/2011)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Luboš Palata

Bulgaria's political dwarves aren't mourning

As a symbolic figure of resistance against totalitarianism the former Czech president Václav Havel towered so far above today's Bulgarian politicians that their messages of condolence ring hollow in the ears of blogger Ivo Indjev: "It's hard for me to swallow messages of condolence from these people who have heaved themselves into top political positions in Bulgaria. As much as I try I see nothing in the attitude of our prime minister and our president, this tandem of mourners over Havel's death, other than insincerity combined with the bad conscience of political dwarves pursuing grand Balkan ambitions. I just can't take them seriously. Not so much because they lack Havel's historic grandeur but because they're simply lying. And with all their ugly provincial narcissism as the torch bearers of some dubious democracy they don't really sound like mourners." (18/12/2011)

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More from the press review on the subject » History, » Remembrance culture, » Czech Republic, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Ivo Indjev

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