On Friday 26 November 2021, on the eve of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Alexander Dubček, President Zuzana Čaputová commemorated his legacy and, together with his son Pavol Dubček, laid a wreath at his grave in Slavičie Údolie.

Alexander Dubček was a central figure in the Prague Spring and November ’89 and in the President’s view, he embodied the democratising spirit of the 1960s and inspired a large part of society. “The invasion by the Warsaw Pact armies and his own experience during normalisation taught him that it is impossible to put a human face on a totalitarian regime. During normalisation, Alexander Dubček retreated from the limelight, but he was not forgotten. His trip to Italy to receive an honorary degree from the University of Bologna and meet with Pope John Paul II created a media sensation throughout the free world.”

In November ’89, he spoke at meetings in Bratislava and Prague, and showed the human face that he wanted to bring into politics to a generation without direct experience of 1968. He aligned himself with a change that was much more fundamental than the Prague Spring and meant the real end of the Communist regime. Alexander Dubček would be part of this period of historic breakthrough for just three more years. Although this time was short, he helped to pass the laws that transformed a totalitarian state into a democratic country, especially in the position of Chairman of the Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic.  “Alexander Dubček is one of those figures in history whose significance goes beyond his achievements. He helped to build the structures thanks to which Slovakia is today a democratic state, even if he may originally have considered that unthinkable.”

Photo: TASR