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Oslo – September 2003 Alexander Dubcek in the Federal Parliament

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Oslo – September 2003 Alexander Dubcek in the Federal Parliament Oslo – September 2003 Alexander Dubcek in the Federal Parliament After November 1989 Jozef Žatkuliak Alexander Dubcek was a multi-dimensional personality and politician, who combined humanism and democracy in his life story. He also expressed this when he received an honorary doctorate from Comenius University in December 1991: „I support a moral conception of politics. For me morality merges with humanity. Humanity and not violence is my programme“. 1 Dubcek’s programme was based on deep social feeling. He supported European federalism and integration, as well as the idea of a common Czecho-Slovak state. A further pillar of his programme was his sincere relationship to his native Slovakia and his own nation: “The Slovak nation developed into a modern nation with its own identity, which cannot be forgotten at home, in Europe or in the world. It contributes to the development and enrichment of European science and culture. Is more evidence necessary of the extraordinary internal strength of the Slovak nation?”. 2 He valued its social, Christian, democratic and humanist values. The political evaluation of Stalinism or rather the cult of personality, heard at the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in 1956, as well as experiences from the “Slovak and Czech Spring” of 1968 as part of a great European and world movement contributed to Dubcek’s ideological development. Naturally, even in the seventies and eighties, Dubcek was not “silenced” with his open letters addressed to political and state authorities at home and abroad. These letters defended the reform movement of 1968, criticized the policy of the communist regime for its violation of human and civil rights and persecution of reformist communists. He welcomed Soviet Perestrojka as an impulse for social change in Czecho- Slovakia. The world appreciated his humanization of politics or socialism. The University of Bologna awarded him an honorary doctorate in November 1988, and in January 1990 he received the Andrej Sacharov Prize for the Defence of Human Rights at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. At that time, Dubcek held the second highest state function in Czecho-Slovakia – the post of speaker of the Federal Assembly. After the collapse of the communist system, the renewal of democracy, parliamentarism, political and economic pluralism began. Dubcek understood the depth of the social changes, and the fact that they went beyond the limits of the 1968 reforms. However, this difference was both his strength and his weakness, it involved both advantages and losses in the future. He embodied the “interrupted Czecho-Slovak revolution” of 1968 and the need for the coming of 17th November 1989 and the return of Czecho-Slovakia to the camp of the democratic states. For the still vital 68 year old Dubcek a second “spring” came in a more favourable international situation than 20 years earlier. He perceived the possibility of a rehabilitation of the reforms of 1968 and the political group, which had supported them. He was aware of the changes and reasons, which led to the West failing to help the Slovak and Czech nation in the years 1938, 1948 and 1968, in spite of strong moral support. The bi- polar world ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the so-called Soviet Bloc. Renewal of the sovereignty of the Czecho-Slovak state was within reach. 1 Literárny týždenník, no.1-2, 3rd January 1992. 2 Ibid. The democratic revolution could not develop without dealing with the occupation of the state in August 1968 and apologies from the countries, which participated in it. On 26th November 1989, Dubcek already demanded the resignation of the compromised leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and called on the countries, which had participated in the occupation, to declare it invalid. The Soviet communist leader Michail Gorbachov, who later described Dubcek as the “spiritual” father of Soviet Perestrojka, under pressure from Czech and Slovak society and the chief protagonists of the revolution – Obciansky forum (OF – Civic Forum) and Verejnost proti násiliu (VPN – Public Against Violence), he apologized for the occupation, and he annulled it together with representatives of other states of the former Soviet Bloc. One of the main aims of the revolution and especially of A. Dubcek was fulfilled. This, at least moderated the 20 year trauma in Czech and Slovak society, which demanded the democratic transformation of the social system. In the middle of December 1989, Dubcek announced that he would not join the Communist Party, which, in his view, would have to undergo deep changes, so that it “could learn to live in a pluralist system”. He continued: “Where foreign relations are concerned, I support the process of European integration, which covers the economic, cultural and social areas and contributes to strengthening of relations between states and nations”. 3 The rehabilitation of 1968 strengthened Dubcek’s social position, but the OF and VPN still blamed him for his communist past and feared his candidature for the post of president of Czecho-Slovakia. In spite of this he expressed the trustworthiness of the social changes for the world, and shouts of “Dubcek for the Castle” resounded on Letenská plán in Prague. They gave priority to the hitherto little known representative of the OF Václav Havel, who was helped in the presidential election by the new federal prime minister, the Slovak Marián Calfa, who sacrificed the Slovak national aspect to his personal careerist interests. Havel already publicly promised that he would only be a “temporary” president until the parliamentary elections, when Dubcek would replace him, but Havel and Calfa did not fulfill this. This brought the first split in Slovak – Czech and Czech – Slovak relations. In spite of the change in the social system, there was a repeat of the disputes about the division of the highest state posts between the Slovaks and Czechs at the time of the election of the speaker of the Federal Assembly at the turn of the years 1968-69. They contributed to the removal of Josef Smrkovský, who was very close to Dubcek. After April 1969, Dubcek became for the second time speaker of the Federal Assembly on 28th December 1989. He received this post in an entirely different internal political situation to that in April 1969, when he was forced to leave the highest political position. He became one of the main representatives of change in the social system after 17th November, associated with the coming of political and economic plurality, a new legal order and the renewal of parliamentary government. However, nobody had experience of parliamentary government. They started from the beginning. Dubcek, with substantial support from the first deputy speaker of parliament and later Czech Social Democrat Zdenek Jicínský, and with the Czech National Council and Slovak National Council, needed to establish a new legal order guaranteeing democratic changes. However, at the beginning of 1990, Havel himself indirectly caused a serious dispute between the Czech and Slovak political representatives. He did not realize that it was not enough to remove the word “Socialist” from the existing name of the federation – “Czechoslovak Socialist Republic”, but it was necessary to rehabilitate the position of Slovakia in the name and shield of the common state as a union of two national republics. Dubcek, the most significant supporter of Czecho-Slovak unity, played a key role 3 Interviews for the newspapers L’UNITA and LA REPUBLICA. CTK, Rome, 17.12.1989. In: www.ceskenoviny.cz/iso/1989/zpravy/ on the floor of the federal parliament in solving the disputes and easing the tension, which had spread between the Slovak and Czech societies. “Today we start from the primary sovereignty of the national republics and we respect the relationship between the sovereignty of the federation and the republics on the basis of the principle that without the sovereign republics there cannot be a firm federation, while without a stable federation there will not be strong republics”. 4 He supported the justified proposals of the Slovak national authorities, and, in the complex internal political situation, he participated in ending the hyphen war in April 1990 and adopting the following name for the common state: Ceská a Slovenská Federatívna Republika (CSFR – Czech and Slovak Federal Republic). However, he realized that part of the VPN was not able to flexibly react to the intensity and depth of the conflict over the federal symbols. Dubcek’s “Europeanism” received a new dimension in May 1990, when Michail Gorbachov described the occupation of Czecho-Slovakia as a strategic mistake of the former Soviet leadership. Up to the parliamentary elections of 8th-9th June 1990, he figured as one of the leaders of the VPN. His internal and international credit meant that he was again given the post of speaker of the federal parliament. Czecho-Slovakia then completed the basic democratic changes in the social system. Before the approving of the so-called responsibilities act on 11th December, he declared that his whole life had been „dedicated to ensuring that a spirit of understanding, tolerance, cooperation and fellowship prevailed between the Czechs and Slovaks“. 5 However, the Czech right never „forgave“ the Slovak side for gaining responsibilities for the national republics and not supporting the variant of a centralized federation. In addition, the two main political groups of the democratic revolution in Czecho-Slovakia – the OF and VPN – disintegrated, after differences on the organization of the Czecho-Slovak state appeared within them. The Czech Obcianská demokratická strana (ODS – Civil Democratic Party) of Václav Klaus and the Obcianská demokratická aliancia (ODA – Civil Democratic Alliance) and the Slovak nationalists led by the Slovenská národná strana (SNS – Slovak National Party) accused Dubcek of joining the „pro-federal forces“, but in reality he continued to support political consensus on the functioning of the existing Czecho-Slovak federation on the basis of respect for the national and state attributes of the Slovak and Czech nations.
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