Bratislava, Jan 2 (CTK) – The split of the Czechoslovak federation at the end of 1992 led to a formation of two smaller and therefore less significant states, but the Czechs have not realised the fact fully yet, while the Slovaks actually upgraded to their first state ever, Slovak daily Dennik N. wrote on Tuesday.
“In the 1990s, their [Czechs] illusion of persisting significance was inadvertently nurtured by Vaclav Havel owing to his international authority. After his departure, the pettiness of the Czech Republic manifested in full, however, it seems everyone else is able to perceive it but the Czechs,” the daily writes.
The Czechs’ blindness is demonstrated by their stance towards the EU, whereby Czech politicians act as if Europe was to strive for the attention of the Czech side and not the other way round, the daily writes.
“This strange convulsion cannot be explained other than by a lack of ability to see the Czech Republic as a small state of proportionately small significance, which it became after it lost the Slovak part,” the daily adds.
On the other hand, the Slovaks had to swiftly acquire a strategy of a small state that is being friendly towards the big democratic allies, and they had the advantage of never having had a chance to fall for an illusion of their own greatness, the daily writes.
Looking backwards, the division of Czechoslovakia appears as the right thing to have been done, as both Czechs and Slovaks have never been better off and also liked each other before, the daily writes.
Slovak Pravda daily writes that the division of Czechoslovakia was geopolitically convenient for the Czechs, for they have become more distant from the remains of the disintegrated and unpredictable Soviet empire.
At the same time, the Czechs got rid of the frontier with Hungary, an area potentially unstable due to autonomy struggles of the Hungarian minority in the south of Slovakia, the daily writes.
According to Pravda, the independence of both countries was not anticipated by a clear desire of Slovaks and Czechs for the perishing of the federation, but it was a result of the inability and lack of willingness of the political leaders in Bratislava and Prague to find consensus on a fair operation of the common state.
