In Memory of Václav Havel

The decease of the former Czechoslovak and Czech President Václav Havel entails a passing of a great politician and a moral authority. Almost fairytale-like story, when the Power of the Powerless—to quote the famous title of his essay—brought down the communist dictatorship in the centre of Europe, is very closely connected with his life.

His projection of the Central Europe led him and his friends from Central European dissident circles, who came into power by the end of the 1980s, to the idea to build closer ties among new democracies struggling with the heritage of communism. The Visegrad Group, established in 1991, became the embodiment of this effort.

The Visegrad Group has been the concept which Václav Havel intensively supported and advocated. The results reached by the Visegrad Group during its twenty-year existence have proven the rightness and the foresight of this idea.

A true Homo Visegradicus passed away. Honour to his memory.

National V4 Coordinators

In the picture below: draft of the 1991 Visegrad declaration hand-written by Václav Havel.