Prague, July 8 (CTK) – The division of Czechoslovakia in two countries helped both Czechs and Slovaks, Vaclav Klaus, who in his capacity of Czech prime minister led the negotiations about the division with his Slovak counterpart Vladimir Meciar 25 years ago, has told CTK.
Klaus said he believed from the very beginning that the division of Czechoslovakia was the solution, although many people were against it at first.
He said “anybody who is not biased can see” that the division of the country helped both countries, especially Slovakia.
“None of the problems that we had to deal with in the past 25 years would have been easier to solve in the joint state of Czechs and Slovaks. Nobody can make us believe this. “On the contrary, further problems would be added to those we have had given the fact that people in the two countries have different stances on many issues,” Klaus said.
He said the friendly relations between Czechs and Slovaks have not been harmed. Moreover, some controversial issues disappeared thanks to the division of the country, he added.
Klaus said it made no sense to muse what could have happened if the situation developed in a different way in 1992.
He said the country split in a legitimate way and with a massive support from people from both the Czech and Slovak republics.
On July 17, 1992, the Slovak parliament declared the sovereignty of Slovakia and said the Slovak nation had the right to self-determination. In reaction, Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel resigned from his office on the same day. Klaus and Meciar started negotiating about the situation. In August, they agreed that the country would officially split in two on January 1, 1993. In October 1992, Klaus and Meciar signed the key agreements for the relations between the two new states.
Klaus, 76, was Czech prime minister in 1992-98, parliament chairman in 1998-2002 and president in 2003-2013. Since then, he has headed his own think tank, the Vaclav Klaus Institute.
