Klaus praises Czechoslovakia's split 20 years ago

Prague, Aug 18 (CTK) - The division of Czechoslovakia as from January 1, 1993 was the best solution to the then situation, which benefited both the nations involved, Czech President Vaclav Klaus told Czech Television (CT), assessing the split ahead of its forthcoming 20th anniversary.

Klaus said the Slovak political representation was clearly willing to create an independent state, and a referendum could have changed nothing about it.

The then Slovak prime minister Vladimir Meciar was no radical advocate of the federation's division, while some Czech politicians contributed to it, Klaus said.

He named Petr Pithart (Czech PM from 1990 to July 2, 1992, now Senate deputy head for the Christian Democrats), Jan Kalvoda (MP and Civic Democratic Alliance head in 1992-97) and Vaclav Havel, Czechoslovak president from late 1989 to July 20, 1992) in this connection.

Klaus, the then Czech prime minister who negotiated about the split, said it is not true that Slovak leaders pushed the it through against the will of most Slovaks.

"There really, objectively existed moods in favour of the birth of independent Slovakia," Klaus said.

The division of Czechoslovakia, a joint state of Czechs and Slovaks established in 1918, was decided on in the latter half of 1992 by Czech and Slovak politicians without a referendum, for which critics later reproached Klaus and Meciar.

"There was no other way in which a referendum could change the political situation in Slovakia," Klaus told CT Saturday.

He said referendum is always controversial. "It seems to me that we would have launched an endless dispute over the [referendum] question's formulation," he added, referring to the situation twenty years ago.

Klaus challenged the opinion that Meciar was the chief mastermind of Czechoslovakia's split.

"There were total radicals, including [Augustin Marian] Huska and [Michal] Kovac, who was eventually elected Slovak president, and there were politicians with a milder position. Meciar seemed to me to stand in the centre, he was not a man with separatist thinking," Klaus said.

Klaus, 71, appreciated Meciar as a capable statesman and Slovak patriot also in his letter of congratulations on Meciar's 70th birthday in July.

Klaus told CT that Havel had played only a negligible role in the crucial phase of the negotiations about the division in 1992. Before, however, Havel, with some of his statements, contributed to the negative assessment of Czechs by Slovaks, Klaus said.

The Slovaks understood Havel's words about "rabbit hutches in Bratislava and the defence industry" as a direct attack from Prague, Klaus said.

Havel, shortly after his election as Czechoslovak president in December 1989, commented on Bratislava's Petrzalka housing estate as a "pre-fab rabbit hutch," which raised criticism of some Slovak politicians.

On the Czech side, the "anti-Slovak card" was played by the ODA [a junior ruling party from mid-1992] headed by Jan Kalvoda.

"Some members of the Pithart cabinet [Klaus's Czech cabinet's predecessor until mid-1992], including the prime minister, also played a role," Klaus continued, adding that in the federal budget negotiations Pithart promoted the position of "not a single crown" going to Slovakia.

Pithart assesses the federation's split differently, it ensued from his recent interview for CTK.

According to Pithart, independent Slovakia was wanted by no political party except for Slovak ultra-nationalists. Klaus used the situation where Meciar had escalated Bratislava's demands and surprised Meciar by nodding to the division, Pithart said.

By this both Klaus and Meciar strengthened their positions on the political scene. However, Slovakia with Meciar as PM became close to an authoritarian regime and it entered neither NATO nor the EU before 2004. As a result, central Europe was threatened with penetration of Balkans-like style of politics, Pithart told CTK recently.