Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

2 O viedo | C ampoamor T heatre | 24 th O ctober 1997 As a politician, and as president of my country, I have become keenly aware of the problems of communication in the world of politics. What is involved here is not only ametalanguage of politics, but also a crisis of substance, especially if politics loses sight of the goals that it should pursue and seeks short-term profit instead; not to mention politics reduced to techniques of governing and of holding on to power. More and more often, the unique process of European integration that we are currently witnessing is seen simply as a matter of economic and political technology. What words, or what means of communication, can we find to make citizens of European countries also feel the life-giving sap that has nurtured this process to this day, a sap whose sources are not limited to either the post-war development of the Western part of this continent or the breakthrough events of the last decade? Václav Havel was the last president of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first president of the Czech Republic (1993-2003). — Excerpt from the speech given on the occasion of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities on 24/10/1997. Václav Havel — Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities 1997