Dear fellow citizens,
I am addressing you at the start of the New Year to wish you all good health and a pleasant atmosphere among your closest ones. My main wish for you is that you can all enjoy the little things that make up our everyday reality. I wish that all of us may join forces to create a better and more successful Slovakia, which might be home to us all. Slovakia, which today is celebrating the 27 years of its statehood.
I would be most happy, if my first new year's address in office was full of what we all need the most - nice and comforting words. However, such content would not be true. Therefore, I want to make my address about hope, which all of us can aspire to.
With sadness, I observe how harshness, profanities and manipulations are gaining power in public debates. How we have become used to personal conflict as a legitimate work method. As if humiliating one's opponent were the only way to put one's ideas across. Since we are all tired of ongoing conflicts and divisions, let's learn instead how to live together. Because here in Slovakia, we all live together. Let's learn how to strive for common goals. Because over the last few months, many Slovaks have shown that when faced with tragedy, we can come together and that there are many good people living in this country. That's something to be proud of.
When I speak of solidarity, I by no means speak of solidarity with those who have broken the law and who seem to have been avoiding their punishment for a long time. Securing order and fairness in everyday life is one of our biggest dues from the legacy of November 1989 revolution. Last year uncovered many examples of legal failures, which left us all speechless with disgust. Championing legal securities instead of corruption, formalism and the misuse of justice should be among our main challenges for the upcoming years. Another, no lesser, goal is also to secure decent living conditions for those among us who are underprivileged, be it due to ethnicity, race, gender or material conditions. Giving these people the chance to challenge their fate in no way undermines our own strive for a decent life. Quite the contrary.
Among the issues we shall face next year, I also have to mention the upcoming general election and ask you all to exercise your civic right to elect your political representatives. Let us not make the next year a year of missed opportunities. This means pushing forward the reforms in our healthcare system, strengthening our commitments concerning climate change, tackling generational poverty as well as focusing on our culture and cultural heritage. Let us not become disillusioned by the size of those goals, we have to focus on the road to their fulfilment instead.
I understand your worries about an unclear future, worries regarding your loved ones. I understand that you feel anger when facing injustice and unfair practices. These emotions, however, should not paralyse us. What we all need is trust, whether it is trust in our set goals or trust in public institutions, despite the failings of individuals.
Let us not forget that there are many reasons to be proud. In many parameters, Slovakia is doing well, we are a respectable and stable partner for our foreign friends, and our people achieve world class recognition. Let us rid ourselves of the illnesses associated with young democracies, such as insufficient legal structures, and instead let us unleash the potential our Slovakia possesses. Together, hand in hand, with a colourful palette of values and opinions, with respect for truth and with humanity. Let the year 2020 be a year of fulfilled opportunities.
We shall succeed.
Translated and edited by Zuzana Botiková.
