We could have had a stronger hockey team. Applicants for the Castle on the breakup of Czechoslovakia

Petr Pavel, an officer of the Czechoslovak army, was caught up in the news about the division of the republic into the territory of the former Yugoslavia during the war. Behind him and other members of the Czech Republic people from the Ministry of Defense came to the battalion and started giving them instructions on how to divide the unit. “It was hard for me to bear it, it seemed pointless,” Pavel remembers today, how he perceived the events of the turn of 1992 and 1993.

After 30 years since the breakup, the editorial staff of Aktuálně.cz asked all the presidential candidates to recall what they did at that time and what they thought about the independence of the republics. Some also provided photos of themselves at the time.

Petr Pavel, Jaroslav Bašta, Pavel Fischer, Tomáš Zima, Josef Středula and Karel Diviš agreed that they did not want the federation to be divided. Danuše Nerudová, who was 14 years old at the time and studied at the Brno grammar school, said that she sensed people’s fears, which fortunately did not come true. Mainly associated with the event are images from the garden of Tugendhat villa in Brno, where Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus and his Slovak counterpart Vladimír Mečiar confirmed the dissolution of the federation.

Marek Hilšer is only two years older than the only woman among the candidates for the Castle, and he also perceived this historical milestone from the perspective of a teenager. “I remember being sorry, but due to my age I didn’t realize all the connections. I didn’t consider it a serious problem at the time,” he describes. But he did not like Mečiar’s politics, and therefore saw the division as a relief. The government of the first Slovak prime minister, Vladimír Mečiar, was characterized, among other things, by connections with organized crime.

Some candidates believe that the people should have voted for the division of Czechoslovakia in a referendum. Specifically, Středula, Bašta, Hilšer and Fischer think so. “The division of the federation was a step that was of great importance. Klaus – and I think neither was Mečiar – did not have this step in the election program. Nevertheless, soon after the elections they agreed on the division without the consent of the citizens,” explained Hilšer.

On the contrary, Andrej Babiš stated in one of his videos that it was good that there was no referendum. “During the referendum, the Czechs would probably vote for a common state and the Slovaks against. There would definitely be a conflict,” he said. He did not respond to Aktuálně.cz’s questions.

The candidates identified the biggest disadvantage as the fact that together we would have a stronger position on the map of Europe and the world. “Try to imagine where we would be today in the ranking of the countries of the European Union, if we were still together,” suggests Karel Diviš. But he agrees with others that both states ultimately benefited from the division and it helped to improve relations today.