Together with the New Year’s speech, the speech of the President of the Republic on the national holiday of October 28 is the most watched speech of the head of state during the year. It is a difficult task because everyone expects him to say something that pleases him. So it’s a kind of “mission impossible” (and only Tom Cruise can solve this in the movie). In addition, the overall impression of similar speeches is only apparent years later. From this point of view, Václav Havel and Václav Klaus gave the best and most undeveloped speeches on October 28. In contrast, Miloš Zeman spoke from behind and the result used to be poor. Petr Pavel is proficient in direct contact, but works by committee when reading speeches.
It is obvious for President Petr Pavel that he feels at home in direct contact with people, he can reach out to different groups of citizens, and above all, well-managed PR can be seen behind all of this. Pavel gives his supporters the impression of a people’s president who behaves in an orderly manner. Yes, that is a big difference from his predecessor Miloš Zeman. But in the speeches, one can see and hear that the current head of state will never be a fiery and breathtaking speaker, such as Winston Churchill once was and Benjamin Netanyahu today. Pavel has a pleasant sounding voice and looks presentable. But he sounds measured in speeches. It can also stem from the fact that he does not write his speeches himself, that it does not come directly from his heart. There were and are the majority of such politicians, but then they have to find someone who will write speeches for them that will resonate with the media and the public. On most of the occasions on which Pavel gave a speech, the problem is that he wants to cover a lot of things. Such speech has less effect.
But let’s wait and see what happens in this case with Petr Pavel. He still has plenty of time for that, because it can be assumed that he will be the president of the Czech Republic for two electoral terms.
Good Havel and Klaus
Václav Havel, the first post-revolutionary president, had an exceptional talent for writing and creating speeches. He was a world-class playwright, and it always showed in his performances. He wrote his speeches himself, sometimes struggling with them because he was a perfectionist when it came to writing. He had speeches read by his wives (Olga and Dagmar) and colleagues before the presentation. But Havel was a philosophizing person, so sometimes everything was not always clear to everyone in his speeches. But even in those for the national holiday of October 28, we can always find many remarkable ideas. At the beginning of the 1990s, he tried (in vain) to defend a common Czechoslovakia and then even more often criticized the visions promoted by his political competitor at the time, Václav Klaus. Havel could be sharp in these speeches, but he maintained decorum during the festive day and did not name Klaus. Everyone knew who he was talking about anyway…
Havel’s follower in the position of president was Václav Klaus. He is literally meticulous when it comes to writing speeches, which has always been his passion. He did not have such literary talent as Havel, but he composed sentences precisely and with a clear intention. It just sometimes needed an editor so that the phrases and sentences were not so long and thus sometimes complicated to understand. In any case, Klaus paid great attention to the speeches on the day of the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia and always carefully looked for a topic. These were topics that made anyone furious, but it was remarkable that he didn’t repeat himself. Václav Klaus could be scathing and conceited in his speeches, but even in retrospect it is good to read these speeches, because some of his remarks are still apt.
A weaker Zeman
Miloš Zeman always had a reputation as an excellent orator. Yes, he was like that and he was also a very good debater (which is not the same thing). However, during the speeches on October 28, he did not understand the genre. As president, he had a constant urge to settle scores with someone. And that both with some political opponents and with people with whom he disagreed. It’s a common thing for a politician, but it doesn’t go well with a national holiday. It was necessary to slow down at that moment and leave reservations for another time. But if someone wants to act like an explosive mixture of Benito Mussolini and Fidel Castro, then there is no help. In his magnanimity, Miloš Zeman also underestimated another thing – although he thought about the speeches, he did not write them down, he spoke in hindsight. But then he often repeated himself because he didn’t compare things. In fact, unlike Havel and Klaus, you could accurately predict what he would say and who he would think of.
The art of cutting a good speech and timing it correctly is not an easy task for anyone. It cannot be a gathering of fashionable shouts reminiscent of social networks. And on October 28, it should be a work of linguistic, stylistic, thought and intellectual height for Czech politicians. In addition, it was done dramaturgically interestingly. Not everyone will succeed. But the nation is always anxiously waiting for what each year will bring. A simplified commentary on the speeches of the Czech post-revolutionary presidents since 1990 – sometimes it was a pleasure of thought, other times a hit with an ideological cannon and sometimes even shallow sentences belonging to the political abyss.
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