DAY OF FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

The Centre for European Studies (CES), in cooperation with the Institute for Modern Slovakia, is organising, for the second year running, a celebration of the Velvet Revolution. Entitled ‘Day of Fight for Freedom and Democracy’, the event is symbolically and traditionally being held on 17 November in the historical building of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, where important events of the revolution in Bratislava took place.

Last year, leaders of the European People’s Party (EPP) member parties Mikuláš Dzurinda, Pavol Hrušovský and Pál Csáky met on stage, together with dissidents and representatives of civic society and minorities, in particular the Hungarian community. As many of the key personalities of the revolution were musicians and singers, the event this year combines both politics and culture.

In addition to the Chairman of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU-DS), Mikuláš Dzurinda, the Chairman of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), Ján Figel`, and the Chairman of the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK), Pál Csáky, the President of CES and EPP, Wilfried Martens, also addressed the audience. He spoke on the role that the European centre-right played, and still plays, in the fight against communist regimes and, later on, in the integration process of the post- Soviet countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

As the central event of the Velvet Revolution commemoration, the ‘Day of Fight for Freedom and Democracy’ attracts hundreds of participants from all walks of life. It serves as a true celebration of freedom and democracy, and a reminder that it was centre-right forces that brought these principles back to Slovakia and protect the values of the revolution – in the past, the present and the future.