Zuzana Čaputová

“ There are no easy shortcuts on the road to the best possible Slovakia. It is something that needs to be said openly, even at moments like this. If we want to get there, we have to walk the whole route patiently, step by step, as citizens, as residents and as a society.
I sincerely hope that this is a journey that we will make together. I want to be the president of the people who are walking that road, and those who come to join them. I want to be the president of all the citizens of the Slovak Republic. ”

“ If we can respect such diversity and accept one another within the family, we can manage it in society too. Let us respect the wisdom and life experience of our elders, but also the freedom and the thirst for knowledge in the younger generation. ”

“ The rage that has recently been offered here as a medicine, is much worse than the disease it is supposed to cure. We need to focus the energy of discontent on ensuring that the rule of law always works in Slovakia, not just in the constitution but in real practice. Institutions or people within them that cannot cope with corruption or the untouchability of certain persons must become a thing of the past. They offend against the fundamental human sense of justice. We have made a lot of progress in transparency, but we are lagging and falling further behind in the enforcement of responsibility. ”

“ Where the European Union provides the space for our life and values, NATO is the pillar of our defence and security. As a country, we must do everything in our power to preserve and strengthen this space and its defensive pillar. It is also important because it is not within our strength, acting alone, to solve the big global problems that affect us. ”

“ A decent life for citizens has many dimensions and each of them has its own story. Here are at least a few of them.
The Constitution of the Slovak Republic says that “people are free and equal in dignity and rights”. In practice this should mean that nobody is so worthless or civically insignificant that they have their rights and freedoms curtailed. But it should also mean that nobody is so important and influential that they stand above the law. Too many people in Slovakia have rightly concluded that this is not quite true for us. ”

“ Transparency is just a tool. Trust and justice must be strengthened through the genuine and not superficial responsibility of those in power. It is unfortunately the case that the institutions that should protect our rights do not have the necessary authority, are not fully trusted by the public and are not always resistant to political pressure.
A decent human life involves material needs as well as questions of rights. We sometimes become complacent when we hear what statistics say about citizens’ incomes. ”

“ If people who work hard and make sacrifices – teachers, farmers, factory workers, nurses and doctors – are barely able to provide for the basic needs of their families and they read about people with wealth that cannot have come from their legal income, they will stop believing in justice. Its absence from society is always a cause of social tension that undermines the democratic system. ”

“ Membership of the European Union and NATO is a decision that we made freely after the Velvet Revolution. For a small state in the middle of Europe, there is no better outcome than belonging to a community that unites economic prosperity with social solidarity and expects every Member State to abide by the principles of international law. Our membership of the European Union is not just about our prosperity ”

“ There is a growing feeling of social injustice that manifests itself in two forms – a call for change and for decency, but also the form of rage against the “system”. There are many good reasons fuelling such rage, but if we succumb to it as a society, it will not do us any good. ”

“ At the same time, we need to bridge the chasms that have opened up in society in recent years between groups and the opinions that they represent. Between conservatives and liberals, between the town and the country, between the old and the new, between majorities and minorities – chasms that we politicians have often widened. ”

“ We can express our attitude to difference, to other traditions, to different experience and to other points of view without infringing on the freedom and dignity of others. It is enough if we remember that we are a part of a whole, a part of the human family. ”

“ We who lived through the euphoria of the end of totalitarianism, and the difficult period of nascent democracy. Our children, who were born in a free country and for whom freedom of movement is as a natural as the relationship to land and soil was for our parents. ”

“ I would like to pick out one of the threads woven through the modern history of Slovakia that I think is especially praiseworthy. The revolutionary regime change of 1989, the division of the federal state and all the other significant social changes that have taken place in our society have followed a peaceful path. With no violence or unrest. Even countries with longer democratic traditions sometimes see people taking to the streets in anger expressing their grievances through destruction. ”

“ Our scientists work in international research teams; we develop products and technologies that can stand up even on the world stage. We have a mature and active civil society. We know how to help each other, and we can also help others in the world. ”

“ It is pleasing to see dynamic growth in the average wage and the gross domestic product, but it would be a much greater cause for joy if there was the same dynamic growth in the number of people able to live a full and decent life from their pay. ”

“ The European Union can make a significant contribution to this because at heart it is a project of cooperation between countries and the alignment of national interests to promote the common good.
Europe should be playing a leading role in averting several global threats and we should be a part of it. The climate crisis is one of those threats. The World Bank estimates that if trends do not change, climate change could drive as many as 143 million people from their homes by 2050. ”

“ Just as older people need our interest, our attention and our understanding, young people need good quality education and good quality schools that give them opportunities for creativity, travelling and proving their worth. ”

“ We do all this even though our universities are still not in the top rankings, we have no systematic support for start-ups and our civil society and journalists are sometimes treated as enemies of the state and our independence. ”