Is there a lesson for Catalonia in the Czechoslovakian 'velvet divorce'? ...
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Is there a lesson for Catalonia in the
Czechoslovakian 'velvet divorce'?
Czechosolvakia's peaceful separation is approaching its 20th
anniversary. Can it be a template for Catalonia and Spain?
Kate Connolly
The Guardian, Monday 19 November 2012 17.59 GMT
Vaclav Havel in 1988. Then a dissident playwright, he became the first - and last - president of democratic
Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Photograph: Lubomir Kotek/AFP/Getty Images
Secession can be a bit like breaking a biscuit: crumbs everywhere and two pieces that
don't seem quite as appealing as the original.
Czechoslovakia's "velvet divorce", approaching its 20th anniversary, probably serves as
the best example in postwar Europe of a relatively smooth parting of the ways. Whether
it can serve as a template for Catalonia is another matter.
"No divorce is a particularly happy experience but it's part of life and this one has
worked out well," says Michal Žantovský, the Czech ambassador to the UK, who was at
the heart of the talks as spokesman and adviser to the Czechoslovak president, Václav
Havel, in 1992 when dissolution was being hammered out by Prague and Bratislava.
"For Václav Havel, it was a very sad thing. He thought of it as his personal failure
because he invested enormous energy into trying to keep the country together. Later he
recognised the split had worked out reasonably well and that most Slovaks and Czechs
were reasonably content," he said.
The split came about for a range of reasons, though mainly due to historical grievances
between the Czechs and the Slovaks that were arguably exploited by the political
leaderships of both nations, which lacked democratic experience due to their long
communist legacy.
While the Czechoslovak partition is widely seen as a model of how to divide a country
peacefully, Abby Innes, a lecturer at the London School of Economics and author of
Czechoslovakia: The Short Goodbye, argues against using it as the template for other
dissolutions. "I think it's a partition rather than a legitimate and mandated separation,"
she says. "It's not a model you'd want to see copied, most particularly in a democracy."
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Describing the split as a "process manufactured by ruthlessly pragmatic Czech rightwing
political forces and abetted by a populist and opportunist Slovak leadership", she says
the main problems were that separation was favoured only by a minority of people in
both republics and it was never democratically mandated. The whole procedure
"revealed the deep weakness of the post-1989 federal parliament and the constitutional
order", she says.
Žantovský recalls the practical headaches of deciding who got what, just like the average
divorce but rather more complicated.
"There were myriad sticking points," he said. "Dividing the sports teams for one, though
that proved easier than other things such as dividing the assets of the central bank, the
weapons and munitions of the army, the currency and the embassies. In late 1992 I
went to Washington as the last Czechoslovak ambassador, and three months later I had
to divide the embassy and became the Czech Republic's ambassador. For a while we
shared the same embassy building with the Slovaks, until they got their own property.
They in turn kept the UN properties in New York."
The guiding principle to the division process was two-thirds to the Czech Republic, one
third to Slovakia, based on the proportion of territory to population.
But, added Žantovský – who is married to a Slovak – while he is happy the division
worked out for Czechoslovakia ("both countries have done well and relations between
them are very good") he would not, he said recommend any other country follow the
example.
"There are inevitably real downsides when a country is two-thirds or a third of its
former size," he said. "It's obviously not as big or influential as it was before. And on a
personal level, there's still a lot of nostalgia for the country we grew up in and
considered our own and liked very much. So it's not all just a bed of roses."
More on this story
Catalonia's leader tries to ride secessionist wave
Artur Mas has promised a referendum within four years. An election on Sunday will
serve as a quasi-plebiscite on secession
Catalonia is voting on its future in Spain – and Madrid is worried
If Catalonia wins independence, where will it end?
Jordi Galí: The case for Catalonia's independence
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18 comments, displaying
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Staff
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JGordon21
19 November 2012 10:51PM
Good article, just a shame it was so short. More analysis next
time please.
kotsreveb
19 November 2012 11:46PM
Great article. On the point about splitting up the national sports
teams, I remember going to see Wales vs Czechoslovakia in a
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world cup qualifier, just the time of 'The Divorce' The game
ended in a 2-2 draw, with some great goals - Giggs was rather
more gazelle like in those days. But the thing I remember most
vividly, was a conga line of dancing Welsh football fans, before
the match, dancing along St. Mary Street in Cardiff singing "Are
you Czechs or Slovaks? Are you Czechs or Slovaks? Na na na na,
na na na na!"
Funny, absurd, sad.
RuggerTyke
20 November 2012 1:32AM
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^
The Czechs basically retained the talent, reaching the Euro '96
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finale where they fell against Germany who conversly reigned
supreme as West Germany and no Easterner has tasted success chiefly Ballack - as the talent pool remains Western, unless the
East has a dutch gene afflicting it and the Catalan and Basques
successful integration has been at the core of Espana's success.
The Czechs also now hold the Hopman, Fed and Davis cups
simultaneously which is a phenomenal achievement which has
recently been achieved;
East famously excelled at other sports thanks to some magic
medicine for which Spain is also arousing suspicions for, with
Contador not helping the quelling of them, albeit that sport is
riddled with simultaneous cyclers.
RuggerTyke
20 November 2012 1:33AM
And the incisive sharpness of football fans remains a wonder to
behold, not, inane sheeple.
charles794
20 November 2012 2:51AM
The article, despite its brevity, is a good and fair summary. The
two nations are now struggling with the quality of human
resource, degraded as it was over the last 150 years by the
Hungarians, Germans and Russians (and the catholic church for
much longer), ably aided and abetted by the local spineless and
criminal Establishment.
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duhjapan
20 November 2012 3:24AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/19/lesson-catalonia-czecho...
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"It's not a model you'd want to see copied, most
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particularly in a democracy."
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Yes. It seems like the worst possible way to break up a country apart from all the other ways.
johnypaty
20 November 2012 4:39AM
A good article & thankyou.
Do most Scots really dislike the English & the UK Political
system [including adversarial House of Commons]? Many
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Scottish people no doubt disliked & totally rebuke what the
English did to the Scots before & after 1745; I can completely
sympathise with that.
We have had many great Scottish people making the history of
Britain including indeed the soldiers & services in many wars.
Let us not forget that; but I still believe in that quotation
´´United we stand divided we fall´´. If Scotland does get full
independence then it can not stop there, Northern England will
want the same over the continuing North South economic & class
divide. Wales of course................ and Northern Ireland?
As for me, I am 25% Scot, 25% Irish & 50% English. Somewhat
of a hybrid! I am not a nationalist and if asked I am always
British.
Michael White
20 November 2012 4:56AM
I live in Prague, the analogy is too simplistic. The Czechs and the
Slovaks wanted to separate and they were never really one
country. Many Slovak assets were under the control of the
centralist government in Prague and would have been separated
in any event. It would be a myth to say that Czechoslovakia was
one country as it was also a myth when we grew up with a
country called Yugoslavia. To be historically correct, the
separation could have been into the historical domains of
Bohemia, Moravia-Silesia and Slovakia which were the three
regions of 1928-1938 but no-one had the stomach to do this.
Finally the separation was not prompted by the pressures of
austerity nor the investment in each region that today supports
the Catallonians, nor the different levels of debt at the regional
and state levels. The situation in Spain is opportunistic as it
could be in an Italian north-south divide and so it has none of
the legitimacy of the Czech and Slovak partition.
Bertxin
20 November 2012 5:14AM
Is there a lesson for Catalonia in the Czechoslovakian
'velvet divorce'?
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Yes, but will Madrid listen? Will they ****.
20/11/2012 9:19
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Madrid is more worried about the surfeit of right-wing,
left-wing(yes, left-wing) spanish nationalists and the military
reactionaries than even about the catalan nationalists.
LuckyJimmy
20 November 2012 6:07AM
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Response to Michael White, 20 November 2012 4:56AM
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I also live in Prague, and have a large Czech family on my mum's
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side. I don't know many people who think the split was a good
idea, and that includes a number of Slovaks I work with
(although to be fair, they're the ones who've moved to Prague
and find it quite annoying being considered as foreigners, so
perhaps aren't representative). Even now most Czechs and
Slovaks I know see the other nation as their "brothers", and
support them at sports when they're playing anyone but each
other.
Comparing it to Yugoslavia is so far from reality that it's
bordering on bonkers. In fact, I wouldn't be totally surprised if,
should the Euro experiment conclusively fail, we see some form
of Czechoslovakia again some day. There's no doubt in my mind
that the non-Euro Czechs would render all the assistance they
possibly could to the Slovaks if the Euro collapsed, and who
knows where that could lead?
aproposh
20 November 2012 7:10AM
The Czechs and Slovaks were never going to 'do a Yugoslavia' as
they were far too busy down the pub.
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I well remember Christmas 1992 and taking the bus back from
Prague, Czechoslovakia to the UK. Then returning in January to
Prague, the Czech Republic. Christ, those were the days.
The main problem with the divorce was that the hideously
arrogant clown Vaclav Klaus came to the fore of Czech politics.
He and his faceless cronies turned a glorious opportunity to
form a new style of modern state into a corrupt fiefdom where
they rewarded outright theft of state assets by the few, vis a vis
Russia. Such a shame.
On the face of it, the two countries are great - beautiful towns
and countryside, cheap beer, good music and culture, etc - but
underneath the Czech soul is rotten. Can't speak for the Slovaks
as haven't spent much time there.
YoungNed
20 November 2012 7:13AM
These borders are all accidents of history, not inevitabilities. If
Henry VIII and his offspring had been more fertile, what would
the UK look like now?
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More recently, in 1890 the betting on an Australasian federation
had New Zealand in and Western Australia out - and WA
attempted to secede in 1927 only to be rebuffed by an uncaring
Wesminster. Instead we're left with our NZ "brothers" and a
State forever convinced of its own specialness, but never quite
upset enough with the status quo to make the leap. If the
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occasion were to arise the post-Colonial ANZAC integration
would likely re-establish itself with nary a second thought, or
WA would decide enough is enough.
I doubt whether, for Scotland or Catalonia, this is a question of
sport or heritage. It comes down to whether they're willing to
keep putting up with someone else's decisions.
rbrinton
20 November 2012 7:15AM
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If my understanding is correct, the Czech republic, having not
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adopted the Euro, has developed a distinct commercial
advantage over the Republic of Slovakia, who adopted the Euro
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on 1 jan 2009.
In todays climate of Euro crises it would be interesting to read
some well informed opinion on the subject.
Benches
20 November 2012 7:36AM
Am I alone in demanding the return of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia
to the ample bosom of Czechoslovakia?
RHPrague
20 November 2012 7:41AM
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Response to rbrinton, 20 November 2012 7:15AM
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In so far as one can make sweeping judgements on such a
complex question, the opposite is true.
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The Czechs are most reluctant to talk about this, but since 2000,
the Slovak economy has been grwoing TWICE AS FAST as the
Czech one. You can easily check this assertion.
Now, this performance precedes Euro adoption. It also precedes
other measures whcih have helped the Slovak economy and
which the Czechs have not copied (because the Czechs are loathe
to copy anything their little brothers adopt first), such as an
aggressively simplified tax regime.
You cannot say that this performance is down to Euro adoption
therefore. What you can say is that Euro adoption has helped
rather than harmed progressive Slovak economic policies.
The Czech Republic certainly attracts more inward investment
than Slovakia because it has an internal market of a reasonable
size (10m population versus 5m in Slovakia), and most crucially
because it is close to Germany. But that begs the question
whether the Czech economy, currently in recession, wouldn't be
in better health if it had adopted the Euro.
Slovakia's main economic issue is that the growth is
concentrated around Bratislava, and heavily dependent on car
assembly (which Czechs also depend on)> There are large
pockets of depressed regions in East Slovakia. But the issue of
the Euro is relatively neutral to these matters. Without it, the car
assembly plants probably wouldn't be there at all.
The main issues facing both countries are domestic. In the Czech
Republic growth could be restored instantly if the endemic
corruption and theft, particulalrly of EU funds, were
eliminated.In addition the Finance Minister ( a man with a
personal democratic deficit) changes tax policy more often that
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the European railway timetable. That is an example of a Europe
wide phenomenon - so many people blame "Europe" and the
"euro problem" for domestically based issues which can and
should be solved by domestic policy
muscleguy
20 November 2012 7:44AM
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Response to YoungNed, 20 November 2012 7:13AM
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Look mate, any time Australia wishes to become the West Island
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of New Zealand you only have to ask.
It's strange how Australians always see it as us joining them.
duro
20 November 2012 7:59AM
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Czechoslovakia was separated because Vaclav Klaus (Czech right
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wing politician and economist) and Vladimir Meciar (Slovak
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populist) decided to do so. They just could not find any other
way of re-structuring the relationship between the two nations.
No one ever asked the citizens. I find that very sad.
Titangrip
20 November 2012 8:16AM
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Response to duro, 20 November 2012 7:59AM
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Perhaps from a Czech perspective this may be correct but in
Slovakia that was not the case. Even back in the 80s you had the
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likes of the Stastny brothers hammering their drums about the
Slovakian Nation.
Of course we now have the likes of Klaus saying that Havel was
also responsible but frankly Klaus is an unreliable "Thatcherite"
liar at the best of times and anything he says cannot ever be
taken at face value.
As to what may have happened, I agree it is sad and I do feel that
Meciar and co were overplaying their cards, as ex Communist
bully boys it is to be expected but now I get the distinct
impression that Slovak's would not facilitate a reunion. In
particular thanks to people such as that populist cow Monika
Flasikova Benova (incidentally married to the ex HZDS
campaign chief during Meciar's glory years) who play the EU
card so well and would lose to much within the scope of their
own little fiefdoms if political power were again shifted to
Prague.
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20/11/2012 9:19