Discussion “Rebirth of Ideals of November ‘89?” was organized on November 12, 2019 at the Pálffy Palace in Bratislava by the Milan Rastislav Štefánik Conservative Institute.
Peter Zajac, president of the Conservative Institute and founding member of the Public Against Violence movement, Grigorij Mesežnikov, president of the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) and fellow of Europe’s Futures program at the Institute for Human Sciences – Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen/IWM (Vienna), Martin Mojžiš, editor of weekly .týždeň [Week] and Karolína Farská, spokesperson of civic initiative For Decent Slovakia, attended the discussion. The event was moderated by essayist and journalist Soňa Gyarfašová.
Discussants focused on the course of events in November 1989 in the then Czechoslovakia, on impact of November revolution to the overall country’s development and life of its citizens, on the persisting heritage of November ’89.
In the discussion, president IVO emphasized the historical merit of representatives of civic movements Public Against Violence in the Slovak Republic and the Civic Forum in the Czech Republic who took the initiative to negotiate with the then communist power on behalf of citizens demanding changes and by this have taken responsibility for the outcome of these negotiations. Eventually, the negotiations resulted into non-violent change of power and clear pace towards freedom and democracy, which are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their re-establishment in these days.
