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English Pages, 28. 1. 2025
It is an honour and at a same time, especially in this case, a pleasure to be chosen to introduce this year’s Golden Arrow laureate Boris Tadić. This award has been given in the last two decades to many individuals in various spheres of life for their outstanding achievements. In my field, in politics, this award was given to such extraordinary world personalities as Frederik de Klerk, former President of South Africa, or Shimon Peres, President of Israel. And Boris Tadić no doubt belongs to this group.
I met Boris Tadić, two times President of Serbia, when we were both in office. I immediately understood that he was an authentic leader of his sorely tried country, of a country which had suffered great losses in all 20th century wars, especially in the First World War, when Serbia lost 28 % of its population. Among the ex-Yugoslav and Balkans politicians, he was extraordinarily clear and convincing. He didn’t try to impress foreign audiences but his own people. He became a head of state in a very difficult moment of Serbian history, after a cruel civil war and after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
During his presidency, he succeeded in stabilizing Serbia and made several courageous acts – visiting Srebrenica and apologizing to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, accepting the independence of Montenegro and its peaceful secession (I know what I am talking about, because I was confronted with a similar task more than a decade before), and on the contrary, opposing the unnegotiated secession of Kosovo.
We have one thing in common. We both were sportsmen. For a politician, it is important to be a sportsman, to know how to win, how to accept defeat and how to – after a defeat – stand up and play again. It is important for a politician to play team games. A sportsman plays for his team, not just for himself.
I am convinced that the Golden Arrow 2025 will be put in the right hands.
Václav Klaus, 22nd Vienna Congress, Wiener Rathaus, Vienna, January 27, 2025
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