Berlin, Oct 5 (CTK correspondent) – The Czech Republic, Europe and the world are lacking the man like former Vaclav Havel, the German daily Die Welt wrote yesterday, adding that the former Czech president would adopt a different approach to migration than current Czech politicians.
Havel, who died five years ago, would celebrate his 80th birthday on Wednesday.
“In the obituary on Havel’s day on December 18, 2011, I wrote ‘He will be missed. Not only by Czechs.’ At that time, I did not think he would be missed so much, by Czechs, Europe and the world,” Hans-Jorg Schmidt writes, adding that Havel had openly made clear his views.
“I consider it certain that he would sharply protest against the undignified treatment of migrants by the Prague Interior Ministry,” Schmidt writes.
“He, as a convinced European, would have certainly demanded humanity,” he adds.
It is not known whether Havel would support the quotas for the redistribution of refugees within the EU, Schmidt writes.
Havel would pragmatically ask how to keep the refugees in the Czech Republic if they want to go elsewhere, he adds.
However, this would not be enough for him, as he would also ask the government to be much more active in the refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Syria, Schmidt writes.
“He would certainly look farther beyond the Czech horizon than his successors, Vaclav Klaus and Milos Zeman,” he adds.
“At the weekend, the current president [Zeman] proposed that the ‘economic migrants’ be moved to empty Greek islands or that they be interned in the regions of North Africa without any population,” Schmidt writes.
Something like this would have never occurred to Havel in the least. The same is true of travelling to the Greek Rhodes island to a conference staged by Vladimir Yakunin, a close aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yakunin was blacklisted by the international community. This year, both Zeman and Klaus attended the conference.
Havel would also proceed in other questions differently than the two politicians, Schmidt.
He would strongly campaign for the British staying in the EU and he would deeply regret their decision to leave it. At any rate, he would not prefer Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton as Zeman has done, Schmidt, the Prague correspondent of Die Welt, writes.
