Conference on Václav Havel held in Budapest
May 24, 2012
An international conference in honour of the memory of Václav Havel was held in Budapest yesterday. In an address to delegates, the former president of Hungary, Árpád Göncz, under whose auspices the event took place, said it was “important and fitting” to remember Havel and to introduce him to young people as an example.
Göncz also stressed Havel’s status as an important writer and great thinker who had embodied the ideas of the Velvet Revolution and European unity. He pointed out that prior to the fall of totalitarianism in Eastern Europe, Havel had encouraged the activities of the democratic opposition in all the countries in the region.
The conference was held at the initiative of Budapest councillors from the environmental party Politics Can Be Different (LMP) and organised by the city’s Czech Centre in cooperation with Eötvös Loránd University, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and the Ökopolisz Foundation.