Radio Slovakia International brings you the key points from the New Year's address from the President of the Slovak Republic, Zuzana Čaputová.
Dear fellow citizens, people from Slovakia, as well as from abroad,
I am addressing you at the start of the new year to wish you good health and happiness among your closest ones. I wish that we are all able to find our inner peace, because only thus can we give it to others.
Last year was exceptional, as hard as any one I can remember in my life. We have been clueless because of an invisible virus. However, even a lot of good has happened and many heroes stepped out.
We have witnessed undefeatable human effort, cooperation, creativity, expertise with Slovak science once again confirming its high quality. Let us trust scientific knowledge, its global effort in creating vaccines. When we get back to the life we had been used to depends on the number of people who will trust the arguments about the importance of vaccination.
In the past year, health care professionals, lab technicians and other people in the front line have been the vaccine of humanity, saving lives at the expense of their personal life, endangering their own health even in these very seconds.
Our armed forces, police and firefighters have confirmed that they are a strong pillar of our state. We also appreciate teachers, who have had to show a great deal of creativity. Last year also pointed to the importance of frequently overlooked professions - crucial in the crisis times - carers, salespeople, drivers and other.
Developments in the justice system also belong to the good news from the past year. In the fight against corruption and in our access to justice, we have achieved more than in the previous few years as events that have been overlooked for years are also being investigated.
However, 2020 has also been a year of lies, manipulation, human stupidity and selfishness. We can see respect for education and expertise on the decline from people who replace their lack of knowledge with loud, self-confident shouting. Now there are people among us who are uncertain as the essence gets lost in the quantity of information. Neither fear nor anger are reasons for a simplified version of reality.
We have experienced too many conflicts. Neither measures, nor people with a different opinion are our enemies. The virus exists, and we can defeat it only together. Therefore, the effort to try to understand the others will never lose its importance.
Last year, many of you lost your closest ones. your jobs or certainties. It has been particularly challenging for people working in culture and in services that needed to be closed and we are now even more aware of how much we are missing you. I appreciate the government's steps and aid, however, these need to be revised in order to prevent any of us from falling through the rescue net.
These days prove that even the beginning of the new year will not be easy and it will require further restrictions with the most important purpose - to save lives.
Please, let us persevere a little longer!
According to Pope Francis, moments like a pandemic crisis are a division line between different eras and this is the time to dream big, rethink our priorities and subsequently behave in accordance with them every day. "If we should come out of this pandemic less selfish, we need to let the pain of others touch us," says the pope. Let us look ahead to what will hopefully be the year of renewal.
We need to join forces to make use of billions from the EU's unprecedented recovery fund - to eliminate the impacts of the crisis and our vulnerability and low resilience. Let us take the path of high quality accessible education, invest in innovation and reach the world-class levels. Let us define our particular steps to fulfilling climate goals, as the goals itself are not enough. Let us solve the roots of poverty. Slovakia can only step up if the people with the lowest incomes, severly impacted by the pandemic, step up.
In order to achieve these goals, we need to restore the trust which brings us together as a society. The trust that the state can help, the trust that politicians' decisions come on time and are the best possible. The trust that people's welfare, not personal interests, are the subject of political competition. We need to shift our attention from "who is to blame" to "what can we do".
I can see Slovakia with its unbreakable spirit and wonderful people, who are tired now. It is time to join forces for the renewal of the country. We are one human family. While looking ahead, there is nothing more important than our unity.
We will make it!
