Speech (extract) by Václav Havel

Speech (extract) by Václav Havel

‘At this very place thirty six years ago Winston Churchill said these words when we he accepted the Charlemagne Prize, “Czechoslovakia will gain its freedom and Germany will be united again.” I am the first recipient of this prize who has the pleasure of being able to call out, “Winston Churchill, Czechoslovakia is free and Germany is united!” […] By professing today that we are a part of the so-called West, we are mainly and above all professing to a certain civilization, a certain political culture, certain intellectual values and universal principles. […] It is not a civilization, a culture or system of values which—after the collapse of the communistic system—suddenly came into favor, but a civilization, culture and system of values that we feel belong to us because we have been involved in their creation over centuries.’