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Do we still feel our national pride 35 years after the Velvet Revolution, so do we still have this positive feeling towards our nation, the Czech Republic? It is not a paradox and it is not a telling fact that today we do not celebrate the founding date of the Czech Republic – January 1, 1993, nor do we particularly celebrate the national holiday, the Czech foundation day – the day when the Czechoslovak state was established on October 28, 1918. Czechs are among those peoples of Central and Eastern Europe who show little national pride, probably because we find it difficult to express our feelings towards our nation. What you hear in response is in most cases the simplified expression “Bohemia čechum”. When Czechs talk about what it means to be Czech, they mention three criteria: being born in Czech lands, having Czech as their mother tongue and having Czech parents, and their sense of Czechness reaffirms this cultural building of our nation. But we are more than a state nation, we are also a cultural nation – an ethno-nation. But in order for us to feel truly Czech, our national pride should be primarily nourished by our nation’s successes and cooled by our failures. Our national pride should be expressed, displayed and perceived in the way our democracy works and the behavior of our political elected representatives, the political influence of our country in the world, its economic performance, its social security system, its scientific and technical achievements, its achievements in sports, the arts and literature, its armed forces, its history and its fair and equal treatment of all groups in society. But our national pride can only become positive if we protect our Czech identity with a strict immigration policy, rejecting the Islamization of Europe, recognizing our Christian roots and respecting our thousand-year-old historical national identity and culture, protecting our freedoms, namely speech and consciousness, our freedom of education, our economic freedom, assuming a larger private sector alongside an adequate size of the state sector. Our national identity, and especially the component of national identity that is tied to the state, is weak as a result of territorial and governmental discontinuity over the past 100 years. We have experienced the establishment and demise of our own state, the shifting of borders and changes in forms of governance so repeatedly that we have lost the ability to identify with the state and experience a sense of patriotism. In 1993, we unknowingly found ourselves in our own ethnically homogenous state, where we had not yet had enough time to redefine our national identity before becoming citizens of the European Union, which subsequently created a wider influence on the definition of our national identity.

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As far as the European Union is concerned, the Czech national identity must be strengthened by a policy fighting for and supporting all reforms in the EU, which are aimed at greater transparency and flexibility, less bureaucracy and a more competitive economy. Key priorities must be presented with the aim of strengthening Czech national interests and promoting specific EU issues, such as budgetary and financial reforms within the EU. In order for the Czech Republic to become a modern, successful state, our national identity must be strengthened and our national pride will be the principle from which we derive our legitimacy. We will be free citizens only when our freedom is the ability to identify with people linked by language, common history, work, customs, traditions, folklore and common expectations for the future. The consciousness of the nation gives each individual not only the ability to experience solidarity with others like him, but also the responsibility for common civic and social ideals in domestic and foreign politics.

Lobkowicz Jiří, 22. 10. 2024

e-mail: redakce@historickaslechta.cz

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