History lessons

“Europe is the homeland of our homelands”, Vaclav Havel said with his very poetic and literary inspirational tone. Even whilst walking along the corridors of the European Parliament, while admiring an exhibition on the fall of the Berlin Wall or engaging in discussions with MEPs and journalists, the subject of politics is addressed in the framework of “shared values”, and “common history”, envisaging the “future developments” for the next generations. In one day’s time engaged in Brussels’ EU Assembly, he manages to address the end of Communism, to declare himself at the same time “Czech and European citizen” in agreement with those who “ascribe special significance to the enforcement of the Lisbon Treaty”.A dissident become President. Havel’s personal background is renown. He was born in Prague in 1936, a writer and a playwright, he was one of the opponents of the regime that governed his country and suffered the shock of the Soviet tanks’ 1968 ‘Prague Spring’ crush. He was one of the authors of “Charta 77”, the dissidents’ manifesto, and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was one of the major protagonists of the 1989 epochal days. Upon his repeated arrests, he became the symbol of the “Velvet revolution” that led to the creation of the new Czech Republic after the Iron Curtain was torn down and once the Warsaw Pact regulating the Soviet Union’s satellite countries was no longer in force. Following the division of the Czech Republic and Slovakia he was elected Czech President from 1993 to 2003. Being at the lead of the Country in the long post-Communist transition period, led to NATO membership and paved the way for EU adhesion (2004). Some of his choices were strongly criticized at national and international level (for example as relates to accepting anti-Russian US missile shield).Learning from history. This does not decrease Havel’s role as the most renown representative of Eastern Europe’s return to freedom in company with Lech Walesa in Poland. “Nobody could have predicted such a sudden collapse of the Iron Curtain”, Havel says today. “Those days changed our history. They marked the end of bipolar division that extended across the whole world”. The political man now “at rest” compared to twenty years ago may have decreased physical and mental energy. Nonetheless, weakened health and advanced age don’t affect his democratic and Europeanist spirit. “Beware that history did not end in 1989”, he warned. “That year was not followed by successes only. The risk of nationalisms is always there. I see it in my Country and across Europe. This is why we need to reflect over history and learn the lessons for the future”.Solidarity, the key-word. For Vaclav Havel, the West “well-managed the course of events”. Closing the door to the East would perhaps have entailed a “populist drift, perhaps an even violent one”. And he noted: “Many of those who waved the Communist flag could have easily embraced the nationalist cause”. And cautiously recalled “the tragedy, the conflict and the deaths in the Balkans”. Thus “solidarity” is the next step, a word that the former president reiterates on many occasions. Solidarity between European peoples and nations and at the same time granting “support to dissidents in Northern Korea, Burma, Iran, Tibet, Belarus and Cuba”, a support that “can offer more help than we can imagine”. Havel thanked the European Parliament for the conferral of the 2009 Sacharov prize to the organization Memorial, “engaged in a battle for freedom in Russia”. Identity and values. As relates to Moscow, Havel recommends bilateral relations which “cannot be based on the fear that gas or oil supply is interrupted, overlooking the murdered journalists” and the question of “individual human rights”. China is another strategic country for Europe, but freedom and rights are not ensured. What is your opinion? “It’s true – he replied -. China is a large emerging economy, a country with which long-lasting partnership could be established. But the enforcement of rights, democracy and freedom must not be disregarded. I speak these words having been at the opposition and at the government”. Accordingly, realism is required without giving in to compromises. The author of “Living in truth”, “The power of the powerless” and “The art of the impossible” openly reflects on contemporary EU. “We share a multi-folded identity. I consider myself European while preserving my Czech identity. We ought to value Europe’s different peculiarities: languages, cultures and customs. At the same time greater attention must be devoted to the spiritual foundations and to history”. “European culture, encompassing elements of ancient times, of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Renaissance and the Enlightenment created unique set of values”, he concluded.