2023 New Year's address from the President of the Slovak Republic, Zuzana Čaputová
Dear fellow citizens,
Let me wish you a nice holiday. In the year 2023, I wish you good health, peace and happiness surrounded by your loved ones. I hope this year brings more reasons for joy than in the past twelve months.
Today, we enter a new year and, at the same time, we commemorate the 30th anniversary of our independence.
In human life, the 30’s is the age of growing from our youth to maturity. It is the age of one generation. For the society or the state, however, such an anniversary gives the opportunity to observe the story of our country through the lens of longer periods of time – despite our focus being taken by the current events linked to the political crisis.
Looking back, we can certainly and proudly say that we are living a unique era. Slovaks have never in their history had a chance to live three decades in democracy, freedom and, at the same time, in their own state. Today, we take it for granted and the majority of us believes that it will remain so.
Nevertheless, this period was preceded by many important struggles. The fight for freedom, for individual and national freedom, for political and civic equality. Struggles for the language, education, preserving the faith or cultural and natural diversity of our country. Fights for the nature of the state, for its recognition and for a decent place in Europe. The holiday today thus gives the chance to thank and pay tribute to those who succeeded in these struggles.
From the moment 33 years ago when the first lucky ones cut the barbed wires on the borders with Austria, we have become a part of the world that we had been only observing before from behind the iron curtain. In comparison with the first steps of the independent republic that had to build its institutions, today we are a sovereign and respected state, a member of the European Union, NATO, the monetary union as well as of the Schengen area.
Most of us believe that no force from without or within will threaten or challenge the fundamental principles that underpin our personal lives and decisions – for example, that also tomorrow we will wake up in a democratic, free and safe country.
Freedom and security will never again be taken for granted after February of last year. We will be long and painfully reminded of this fact by the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Right in a neighbouring country, there are people dying, suffering in the cold and dark. Doubting or questioning their suffering means participating in this cruelty. We are a young state and in many areas we have to spend a lot of energy on our development and building the authority of the uttermost important institutions that in most of the older democracies have long since fulfilled their role. In the last period of its 30 years also our republic has been undergoing serious tests of resilience, preparedness and cohesion.
Will we succeed in these tests? In my State of the Republic address in Parliament, I recently summed up the evaluation of different spheres of public life including the political one. That is why I will not return to these topics. Nevertheless, it is clear that our society is in a mood affected by internal conflicts, mistrust, skepticism and continuous splitting into opinion groups that struggle to find common ground. The political situation at the end of the year resulted in the dismissal of the government.
We have found ourselves in the situation where the massive majority of society agrees on the need for change for the better. It seems we are facing early elections. For many, the change is linked to the fear of further development of the society. But what will happen is only what we let happen.
Let’s try to look over the horizon of this change. Where should Slovakia head after thirty years of its statehood? What kind of Slovakia should it be?
We might agree on the point that it should be a safe home for its citizens. That it should be a state where justice applies equally to all. Where people can rely on the state because it will help them in a difficult situation which will result in improving the quality of their lives. A state that is ruled by political representatives, not put into chaos. A state that is able to lower the impact of global crises on its citizens. A state that is a reliable and respected partner abroad. A society where hatred will not be the emotion on the rise. A country that is a community of happy people, a home, where people want to return and not to leave it.
But how to make it in a country in which a rather big portion of people believe in lies and propaganda? Where so many people drink from poisoned wells of hatred, as Roman Samotny named it after the attack in his gay bar on Zamocka street in Bratislava.
There’s no simple guide for building such a state. Just to honestly go your own way while being open to the world, to other people. And having a dialogue with those who are open to it. Our identity is neither denied nor threatened if we are open to knowing people who are different from us. If this otherness is still only a form of humanity, knowing it can bring growth and enrichment.
This way, we can create a society where the majority of people are willing to cooperate, share values and agree on common goals although there might be different ways to achieve them. In my opinion, we have the potential to do so.
I have seen it at many personal meetings, also last year.
For example, the eastern part of Slovakia can succeed globally in terms of companies in the sphere of IT and machinery with their own research and development. I saw that potential in Kosice and Presov.
In Santovka, Trencin, Puchov, Skalica and Tornala, I met people working in social services for the retired who are working with their clients not only as professionals but also as humans, with great zeal for their work. Social services employees are for me a silent but strong power that strives every day to bring our society together and strengthen it.
While visiting the Gemer region and Muran plateau I saw magnificent areas and met with great people who can move their region forward. No doubt their list includes members of the Omama project that is fighting generational poverty in Roma settlements.
I’ve seen great zeal in charities and non-governmental organizations but also in active individuals. One of them was, for example, 84 years old Elena Zimova from Zvolen who, along with her girl-friends, help poor children.
THe civic sector and many willing individuals are the driving force and key support to Slovakia in difficult times. You, many citizens of Slovakia, have also shown over the past year a great deal of solidarity and humanity towards the suffering of people, be it our fellow citizens or people that were driven out of their homes by war. Simply, you helped people in need. And this is one of the most powerful messages about Slovakia from the last year.
I could continue with many different meetings in various regions which have always, and repeatedly last year, confirmed to me the fact that the biggest wealth that Slovakia has is its people.
Our Slovakia can be all the more successful the better we make use of this wealth and transfer it to governance and management of the state. When we provide people with a motivating environment and, at the same time, when people will be active and will not lose the desire to improve their own environment. Because, it is exactly human activity that has been the force driving Slovakia forward over the past 30 years.
Dear fellow citizens,
I wish that the year ahead is the year of changes for the better.
That it is a year of security and stability. If we are to succeed in smaller and bigger things, let us try to name the visions and goals that unite us. To find the common ground. Wherever possible, to build bridges of cooperation. To stress what unites us and to rise above what divides us – because with all the diversity of our opinions and attitudes, there will always be something dividing us but nevertheless we form one community.
Let us try to see the human beings in each other even in our opponents. We have succeeded when understanding, empathy and sympathy have prevailed over selfishness. The drive and desire to do things not just for ourselves but for others. For everyone. Let's try to do that in the coming year. May it bring us peace and happiness.
