BRATISLAVA, December 19, (WEBNOVINY) — The Slovak Cabinet on Monday adopted a proposal of Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic to pay respect to Vaclav Havel who died over the weekend by holding a national day of mourning on Friday, December 23. The proposal characterizes Havel as a symbol of the Velvet Revolution and fundamental political changes that took place in Europe at the end of the 20th century.
Havel, former President of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic and later of Czech Republic, died on Sunday, December 18 in his weekend residence in the Czech village of Hradecek. The report accompanying Lipsic’s proposal praises Havel as the first democratically elected Czechoslovak president since the communist takeover in 1948 and as a symbol of fundamental political changes in Czechoslovakia after fall of the Communist regime in November 1989.
According to the law on state symbols and their use, the official day of mourning lasts from 0800 until 1800 CET. Now the ministers should propose state and municipal bodies and institutions to lower the national flags at that time. Both President Ivan Gasparovic and Prime Minister Iveta Radicova will be attending Havel’s funeral.
SITA