Press Releases

Vaclav Havel’s idealism has changed Europe

Friday, December 23, Prague - President Dalia Grybauskaitė attended at St. Vitus Cathedral the State Funeral of the fighter for freedom and former President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel.

According to the President, Vaclav Havel was a great European figure whose courage, moral values and idealism have changed Europe. His "Velvet Revolution" inspired the Lithuanian people and other nations to strive for freedom in a peaceful way. With Vaclav Havel Lithuania has lost a friend who strongly supported our independence, she said.

"I am thankful to my destiny for the opportunity to meet President Vaclav Havel. He was a sincere, bright and simple man for whom moral values, humanity and aspiration for freedom were most important. A man who had much inner courage to speak out and tell the truth and whose spiritual strength has stood the test of prison and persecution," Dalia Grybauskaitė said.

According to the President, paying tribute to Vaclav Havel we should cherish and protect the values he has fought for.

In 2007, at the Economic Forum in Krynica, President Dalia Grybauskaitė bestowed Vaclav Havel with the "Man of Central and Eastern Europe" award.

Press Service of the President