No doubt you want to hear that it would be theater of the absurd, and I must admit that there is a kind of absurd element in this story. That is why it took me some time before I came to terms with it, before I found enough convincing arguments to prepare myself internally.
I have done many things in my life because of an inner feeling of responsibility, even if they were things that brought me more suffering than joy … I don’t feel that I am a person enchanted by power, someone who longs for power, who wants to hold any office. The point is that I want to work for something, that I cherish some values, that I want to continue this struggle or work. If I were only concerned with being president at any price, I would have behaved somewhat differently than I have. I would have behaved so as not to have any adversaries, and I have plenty of them.
I identify myself with the systemic changes toward a market economy that have started in our country; I agree with these changes. There is no dispute between me and Klaus [about them]. I have, however, tried not to make an ideology out of these systemic changes. I believe that a market economy is not the purpose of life.
I don’t think that in the foreseeable future the Czech and Slovak republics can be joined together to create some new Czechoslovakia. I had in mind a long-term prospect in a larger context. I meant that it is one step on the way toward a future all-European integration within which we will come back together again.
I believe that a larger, more massive intervention will be the only way to prevent further suffering and further losses of human life. It would be better if the whole international community would participate in such an intervention than if it is only an action by the United States.
