Former president wonders if Velvet Revolution was “pointless”

The former Czech president Václav Havel has stated that he wonders if the Velvet Revolution was not “pointless.” The comments were made in an interview with the Czech daily Lidové Noviny and were specifically referencing the news that the Social Democrats are likely to enter into coalitions with the Communist Party in several local governments – the first time the latter party is going to govern since 1989. In the interview, Mr Havel noted “Sometimes I wonder if what we did back then wasn’t completely pointless.” But Jiří Dientsbier, a fellow former dissident rejected Mr Havel’s take on the Communist Party arguing that the pre-1989 communists were little more than an instrument of Soviet imperial politics.

Author: Dominik Jůn