Evropský kontext české otázky

Prof ThDr. Zdeněk Kučera, the Dean of the Hussite Theological Faculty, reflected in his contribution (“The European Context of Czech Politics”) on the Czech Question, i.e. “existentiality of Czech cultural life within certain horizons”, and he does so in a wider, European context. More specifically, in his paper he can only express where he finds such European context and at the same time consider the values, which create the basis for solving the Czech Question. Bearing in mind the development of the Czech land throughout the centuries (starting from Charles IV to the end of 19th century, which is not the end either), he can see the continuity in the fact that “incolae Bohemiae” have continuously been exposed to exams, because “they live at the crossection of interests of the powerful neighbours both in the West and in the East, as well as the interests brought about by strategie position between the North and the South”. In this situation the speaker finds the solution in the framework of Masaryk’s humanism and democratism in the sense that “it is necessary to work towards a stable consensus, which does not equal hegemony of one social group, but which represents democracy, in which politics does not mean ruthless governance but administration of society with power, but also with justice and respect to freedom of a person”. The complexity of the matter and of the context of the Czech Question consists in that the solving of the Czech Question is conditioned by the fact, whether those ideas determine not only behaviour of members of the Czech nation, but also the European context.