BRATISLAVA, December 23, (WEBNOVINY) — The Slovak Republic pays respect to the deceased former president Vaclav Havel by a national day of mourning on Friday. The government of Iveta Radicova approved the national mourning for today from 8:00 to 18:00 in the memory of this former president of the common state of Czechs and Slovaks, who had an extraordinary influence on public life. The proposal was submitted by Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic, who suggested there should be a tradition to declare national mourning in relation to former presidents. He said Vaclav Havel was one of the few true statesmen in central Europe. „In politics, he was a humanist, an idealist, and we will miss personalities of his format in politics,“ he said.
Former president of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic and then the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel, died in the morning on Sunday, December 18 at the age of 75. Attending his funeral in Prague on Friday noon will be senior government officials and personalities from all over the world, among them will be European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Hungarian President Pal Schmitt, the German Federal President Christian Wulff, former Polish President Lech Walesa, Austrian President Heinz Fischer, the UK will be represented by Prime Minister David Cameron, Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin will come and from the U.S. it will be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton.
Slovakia will be represented by a state delegation led by President Ivan Gasparovic. The delegation also includes Prime Minister Iveta Radicova, former Slovak President Rudolf Schuster, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Milan Hort and Foreign Affairs Minister Mikulas Dzurinda.
SITA