Czechs recall 'Velvet Divorce' 30 years after Czechoslovakia split

Record ID: 1705128

  • Title: Czechs recall 'Velvet Divorce' 30 years after Czechoslovakia split
  • Date: 3rd January 2023
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER CZECH PRESIDENT, VACLAV KLAUS, SAYING: "I think that my task was to make the split, which I considered at that moment inevitable, to make the split friendly, peaceful, and fair. That was... that was my task and I think we, together with the Slovak prime minister (Vladimir) Meciar, we succeeded in fulfilling the task." PEOPLE CROSSING STREET (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER U.S. DIPLOMAT IN PRAGUE, CAMERON MUNTER, SAYING: "I think Vaclav Klaus is probably one of the people who destroyed Czechoslovakia, and it makes me sad to say that. But I think because of his own, shall we say, towering personality and his strong ego, he felt that it was necessary to do the things he wanted to do by splitting the country. I think most public opinion polls at the time were not in favour of splitting, but Mr. Meciar (then Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar) and Mr. Klaus, for their own reasons, felt they should. Now, with all this being said, I think we're fortunate that it was a peaceful split and that people have made... people are still friendly with their Slovak friends, etc. But in my opinion, it was very unnecessary and very sad." MAN EXITING RESTAURANT WITH GIRL, PEOPLE WALKING ON SIDEWALK (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) REUTERS JOURNALIST AT TIME OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA SPLIT, JIRI SKACEL, SAYING: "The Slovaks had very much wanted to become independent. I was in Bratislava on January 1, 1993, and there was a huge queue in front of the main post office. When I asked what they are waiting for, they told me they are waiting for the first Slovak post stamps. But the main post office was only opened for the first time that year on the second (of January) and those people had to wait there for another whole day." MAHATMA GANDHI STATUE WITH VACLAV KLAUS BOOK ON SHELF (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER CZECH PRESIDENT, VACLAV KLAUS, SAYING: (ON LESSONS LEARNED) "I would add to Kosovo and other countries, I would add even Ukraine, you know. I... My understanding and my experience tells me that you have to negotiate. You have to negotiate as long as possible. That's the only way how to avoid a fighting or a war or a dramatic situation in a country." CARICATURE OF KLAUS WITH PRAM, READING (English): "TO THE FATHER OF THE NATION" BOOKS IN LIBRARY PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (JANUARY 3, 2023) (REUTERS) NEW BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, FORMERLY THE BUILDING OF THE “FEDERAL ASSEMBLY” (CZECHOSLOVAK PARLIAMENT) WHERE TALKS AND VOTING ABOUT THE STATE SPLIT TOOK PART IN 1992 VISITORS LOOKING AT THE "HISTORY OF THE 20TH CENTURY" EXHIBITION CZECHOSLOVAK STATE SIGN POSTERS AND PHOTOS OF THE CZECH “CIVIC FORUM” (OF) MOVEMENT AND SLOVAK “PUBLIC AGAINST VIOLENCE” (VPN) VPN POSTER PEOPLE LOOKING AT THE EXHIBITION (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) NATIONAL MUSEUM HISTORIAN, MARTIN SEKERA, SAYING: “The Czechs took Czechoslovakia as an automatic crowning of their statehood and they consider there are two national groups in the state. But the Slovaks had a deficit in the experience of their own independent state and this did play a big role in their emotive nationalism." PICTURES AND POSTERS HANGING ON THE EXHIBITION WALL DEDICATED TO THE 1990S VARIOUS OF POSTER WITH PICTURE OF KLAUS (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) NATIONAL MUSEUM HISTORIAN, MARTIN SEKERA, SAYING: “The pragmaticism on the Czech side was balancing the higher Slovak emotionality in the perception of the common state, which was often viewed as unfair towards the Slovaks. We can see it this way and in comparison with the Balkans where the emotionality was much more present among the nations originally occupying the huge space of former Yugoslavia.” WOMAN LOOKING AT EXHIBITION WITH BUSTS OF STATESMEN KLAUS BUST PICTURE OF MECIAR EXHIBITION NEW BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM
  • Embargoed: 17th January 2023 14:05
  • Keywords: 20th century history Czech Republic Czechoslovakia Slovakia Velvet Revolution anniversary gentle revolution
  • Location: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
  • City: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
  • Country: Czech Republic
  • Topics: Europe,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA005006703012023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: At midnight on December 31, 1992, the then 74-year-old state of Czechoslovakia, founded from the ruins of World War One, vanished to be replaced by independent Czech and Slovak republics. Now, 30 years later, former Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus, who helped negotiate the split, reflected on the country's dissolution and the lessons learned.
    "My task was to make the split, which I considered at that moment inevitable, friendly, peaceful, and fair," Klaus told Reuters.
    "Together with the Slovak prime minister, (Vladimir) Meciar, we succeeded in fulfilling the task," he added.
    The country's dissolution, also often called the "Velvet Divorce" was not put to a popular vote because Klaus and Meciar, who negotiated the split, refused to allow a referendum on the issue. Some Prague residents still hold discontent about this decision.
    "I think most public opinion polls at the time were not in favour of splitting, but Mr. Meciar and Mr. Klaus, for their own reasons, felt they should," said former U.S. diplomat, Cameron Munter.
    But while Czechs were happy being part of Czechoslovakia, many Slovaks felt like secondary citizens, Klaus recalled.
    Journalist Jiri Skacel, who reported on the forming of the two new countries, said Slovaks were so excited about being independent, that some queued for days in front of a Bratislava post office in 1993, to get a hold of the first Slovak post stamps.
    (Production: Jiri Skacel, Isabella Ronca)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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