Current Affairs President marks 90th anniversary of founding of Czechoslovakia
This October 28 marked 90 years since the founding of Czechoslovakia as an independent state. According to tradition, on the day the Czech president always addresses the country before bestowing state honours for outstanding individual service. Jan Velinger has more on the president’s speech and Tuesday’s ceremony at Prague Castle’s Vladislav Hall.
Václav Klaus, photo: CTK
The president’s speech and presenting of state honours on October 28 is
always a highly-anticipated televised event - a chance for the president to
address the state of the nation, its direction, and history. It has now
been 90 years since the founding of independent Czechoslovakia, a date
still marked in this country even though the Czech Republic split from
Slovakia in 1993. In his speech on Tuesday, President Václav Klaus focused
on past sacrifice in that common history – of soldiers in World War I
preceding the founding of the state. He also discussed the Czechs’
current place in Europe, saying that reasonable optimism was justified,
especially in light of recent events. He touched upon the global financial
crisis saying the country had not been directly affected due to its having
retained – for now - its own currency. He also discussed EU membership,
Czech sovereignty, the concept of home and country, as well as solidarity
with like-minded countries founded on the same principals of democracy.
Jiří Zenáhlík (left) with Václav Klaus, photo: CTK
In the ceremony that followed, 28 individuals received the state’s
highest honours. They included several World War II resistance fighters,
soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan, plus artists, and one very
famous footballer. Some of the names and stories: 87-year-old Jiří
Zenáhlík, awarded the country’s highest honour The Order of the White
Lion: In World War II he escaped to Great Britain and took part in the
invasion of Normandy and later the liberation of Czechoslovakia, only to be
persecuted by the Communists, who sent him behind bars.
Václav Pačes (right) with Václav Klaus, photo: CTK
Twenty-eight-year-old Tomáš Krampla, awarded a Medal for Heroism, a
soldier serving Afghanistan who proved cool under fire and whose actions
saved the lives of fellow personnel. Seventy-nine-year-old Marta Kottová,
a Holocaust survivor, given a Medal of Merit for her work teaching students
about the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazism. And, 60-year-old Antonín
Panenka, a footballer whose name is legend for having taken one of the most
audacious penalty kicks in football history. His goal saw Czechoslovakia
triumph in penalties over West Germany at the European Championship in
Belgrade in 1976.
Of course there were others – Václav Pačes, the head of the Czech
Academy of Sciences or architect Alena Šrámková, also honoured. The full
list is too long to mention here but they share one thing in common:
dedication to their country in their respective fields.
