Václav Havel, the dissident playwright who became the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic, is set to become the fourth statesman in the two nations’ history to have a special law passed in his honor posthumously.
Fifty-two of the 59 senators present voted in favor of the bill, one voted against and six abstained. Despite the clear majority in favor, a lively debate on the nature of the law preceded the vote in the upper house of Parliament on Wednesday morning. Several senators questioned the very concept of enshrining a statesman’s achievements in law.
“Of course we don’t doubt that Václav Havel served this state, but personally I’m against codifying it in this way,” Senator Jiří Čunek (Christian Democrats, KDU-ČSL) said.
Čunek then put forward an alternative motion to honor Havel by naming Prague’s Ruzýně International Airport after him — as has been suggested by Prague mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (Civic Democrats, ODS) and the Czech capital’s executive council, among others — but the motion didn’t pass: 10 voted in favor of the motion, 10 voted against with the other senators present abstaining, whereas 30 votes in favor were required for approval. ‘Of course we don’t doubt that Václav Havel served this state, but personally I’m against codifying it in this way.’
Petr Pithart, Čunek’s party colleague and deputy chairman of the upper house, had expressed a similar sentiment: “It’s not for senators to evaluate the past in the form of a law. What patent do we have for it? It’s probably only us Czechs, Moravians and Silesians who pass laws of the type we have in front of us today,” he said, adding that such laws can hinder attempts to objectively evaluate the past.
Pithart was one of the six senators who abstained. The only one to vote against the bill was Václav Homolka (Communist Party, KSČM). The bill was passed by the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, in its first reading on Feb. 1. As a so-called “express law” the legislation only requires a single reading in each house.
The bill honoring Havel, which was put to parliament by Prime Minister Petr N?čas (ODS), is likely to be the shortest many parliamentarians will vote on during their political careers. It reads: “Václav Havel served freedom and democracy. This law will take effect on the day of its announcement.”
The bill will now be forwarded to President Václav Klaus, who is expected to sign into law. It would make the fourth Czech and former Czechoslovak statesman to have such a law in his name, alongside the first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk; his successor, Edvard Beneš; and military leader Milan Rastislav Štefánik.
Havel died last December at the age of 75.
