The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) releases on Tuesday 13th April 2021 the statement“One year after: What place for social, ecological and contributive justice in the EU recovery package?”, reaction of its Social Affairs Commission to the largest package ever financed through the EU budget and its effects on social, ecological and contributive justice. Mgr. Hérouard, President of the Social Affairs Commission of COMECE: “we are called to live solidarity in the European Union and fully include people in precarious situations or isolation”.
One year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic hit hardly the European Union, affecting people’s health, the economy and society as a whole. Together with the ongoing climate crisis and the digital and demographic transitions, Europe now faces also double health and economic emergency.
In this context, the Bishops of the European Union welcome the EU recovery package as “a new sign of solidarity in the European Union, much needed to help the people most impacted by the crisis, and to tackle the ongoing global ecological crisis”.
COMECE urges all Member States to “fulfil their commitment of July 2020 by ratifying the Own Resources Decision in their national Parliaments” and encourages all international actors “to cooperate to find global solutions on digital taxation […] to move towards a fairer taxation system in which large companies contribute in a fair way to the recovery”.
“Against particular interests, we are called to live solidarity in the European Union and fully include people in precarious situations or isolation, and in particular those affected by the COVID-19 crisis. We ask the EU and its Member States that all economic actors, and in particular multinationals companies, some of which have benefited from the crisis, participate in a fair way to the recovery effort to increase ‘mutual trust’ in our economy. At the same time, caring for our neighbours should go in hand in hand with caring for our common home, as one human family living on the same planet”, states H.E. Mgr. Antoine Hérouard.
The COMECE Commission also appreciates the integration of new own EU resources “to ensure that everyone contributes in a fair way to the recovery, while caring for our common home and people who live in it”.
If we are to tackle individualistic trends and to put human dignity back at the centre of our policies, solidarity among nations is needed more than ever. “Solidarity – the document reads – is at the heart of the European Union and will be the key in the recovery”.
The statement was elaborated by the COMECE Social Affairs Commission and analyses some of the achievements of the European Union towards social, ecological and contributive justice since COVID-19 hit the EU. This reflection paper also includes concrete proposals for more solidarity in the recovery process and follows the May 2020 statement “Let Europe recover through justice”, first reaction of the COMECE Social Affairs Commission to the recovery plan proposed by the European Commission.
The non-compliance rate for pesticides in foods decreased in 2019, according to a report published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The report is based on data from official national controls done by EU member states, Iceland and Norway.
For 2019, 96.1 percent of the 96,302 samples analyzed fell below the maximum residue level (MRL), 3.9 percent, or 3,720 samples, exceeded this level, of which 2,252 were non‐compliant based on measurement uncertainty.
The number of samples tested in 2019 increased compared to 91,015 in 2018. The MRL exceedance rate was 4.5 percent and the non-compliance rate was 2.7 percent in 2018.
Fipronil findings still featured in eggs with 23 samples and animal fat with eight. It is a veterinary medicinal product or biocide and presence in eggs is the result of illegal use. EFSA advised that member states continue analyzing for it in animal products. Ethylene oxide, which has prompted thousands of recalls across Europe from late 2020, was not mentioned.
Multiple findings and origin details Reporting countries looked for 799 different pesticides in 2019. On average, 233 different ones were analyzed per sample. National control programs are risk-based, targeting products likely to contain pesticide residues or for which infringements have been identified in previous years.
Of all samples, 44.1 percent contained one or several pesticides in quantifiable concentrations, which is down from 47.8 percent in 2018. Multiple residues were reported in 25,584 samples. In a dried vine fruit sample with unknown origin, up to 28 different pesticides were found. In 313 tests, more than 10 pesticides were detected in the same sample.
The most frequently quantified pesticides were copper compounds, fosetyl, phosphane, bromide ion and chlorates. The one with the highest MRL exceedance rate was chlorate, a result in line with past years.
More than 61,000 samples came from one of the reporting countries and a quarter were from non-EU nations. Samples with unknown origin increased to 11.3 percent compared to 10 percent in 2018. France reported nearly half of its samples as unknown origin. Country of origin is a valuable piece of information for traceability reasons in the case of non-compliance, according to EFSA.
Of samples from the reporting countries, 2.7 percent exceeded the MRL and 1.3 percent were non-compliant. Samples from non-EU countries had a higher exceedance rate of 7.8 percent and a higher non-compliance level at 5.6 percent.
The highest MRL exceedance rates were linked to products from Malta, Cyprus and Poland, with more than 5 percent of samples above the MRL. The non-compliant rate was most for products grown in Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria. The top exceedance rates for non-EU countries were in Laos, Malaysia, Ghana, Uganda, Vietnam, Pakistan, Dominican Republic, Thailand and Cambodia.
Food for children, organic and glyphosate The MRL exceedance rate in processed food products for 9,983 samples, was 2.8 percent, which is lower than that for unprocessed products.
Among 86,319 samples of unprocessed food products, 4 percent had residues above their corresponding MRLs and 2.4 percent were non-compliant samples. The percentage of non-compliances is slightly lower than 2018.
The highest MRL exceedance rates were in grape leaves, yard-long beans, coriander leaves, chili peppers, watercress, passion fruits/maracujas, pitahaya (dragon fruit), celery leaves, pomegranates, teas, and prickly pears/cactus fruits.
Reporting countries analyzed 1,513 samples of foods for infants and young children. MRL exceedances were reported in 20 samples and non-compliance was found five times. In one case, five pesticide residues were reported in the same sample.
More than 6,000 samples of organic food were tested. In total, 76 samples had residue levels above their corresponding MRLs, of which 31 were non-compliant. Animal products showed a higher quantification rate in organic samples of 15 percent than conventional samples at 6 percent mainly because of hexachlorobenzene, DDT, thiacloprid and copper findings.
Glyphosate was analyzed by 26 countries. From the 13,336 samples of different products, it was quantified at levels below the MRL in 364 samples and levels exceeded the limit for 12 samples.
For the 12,579 samples in the EU‐coordinated control program (EUCP), 2 percent, or 241, exceeded the MRL and 120 were non‐compliant.
The EUCP covered apples, head cabbages, lettuce, peaches, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes, oat grain, barley grain, wine, cow’s milk and swine fat. Samples were analyzed for 182 pesticide residues.
Pesticides, not approved in the EU and found on crops grown there at non-compliant levels, included acephate, carbofuran, chlorfenapyr, chlorothalonil, chlorpropham, clothianidin, cyfluthrin, dieldrin, iprodione, methomyl, oxadixyl and triadimefon. Non-approved residues found to be non-compliant on imported samples were acephate, chlorfenapyr, clothianidin, dichlorvos, fipronil, permethrin and thiamethoxam.
Because these results indicate possible misuse of non-approved substances, EFSA recommended that member states follow-up the findings to investigate reasons for their presence and use and take action where appropriate.
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)
Monrovia – Two former prisoners convicted for the alleged commission of the crime rape in Kakata, Margibi County have testified to the adequate acquisition of tailoring skills, which have immensely contributed to their transformation, under the European Union Delegation to Liberia’s funded Strengthening Democracy and Respect for Fundamental Human Rights of Prisoners program.
The program contributes to strengthening democracy and the respect of fundamental human rights for most vulnerable detainees in Liberia, through the provision of vocational skills training (tailoring), support to inmates for reintroduction into the society (offering of sewing machines through reintegration), and improvements of prison facilities with the creation of a reading and hearing rooms.
It also builds the capacity of staff of the Bureau of Corrections, ensures the installation of a solar panel and a computer with an application/database of inmates, pro bono assistance for court hearing and fast tracking of cases, living conditions improvements, and the provision of health materials and improved condition for visiting nurse.
The program which amounts to 750, 000 Euro (US$800,000) is being implemented by Serving Humanity for Empowerment and Development Foundation (SHED) and the Rural Human Rights Activists Program (RHRAP) at the Kakata Prison in Margibi County.
It is said to be improving the conditions and empowering convicts and inmates who are being reprimanded for alleged crimes committed.
John S. Fayiah, a beneficiary of the program and resident of Kakata was convicted for statutory rape in June 2014. He was released in 2020 after serving six of his 10 years sentence at the prison facility.
Prior to his incarceration, Fayiah lost his parents and all of his siblings during the heat of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Liberia in 2014.
According to him, the EU funded program played a pivotal role as evidenced by his recent marriage and the decision taken to open his tailoring shop.
He claimed that though he was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, he managed to pay keen attention to the acquisition of a skill in tailoring while in prison to become a productive citizen after he is released.
“I achieved skill in the prison and today, I am living by the skill. Through this skill, today I am a married man. That woman (pointing) – you see over there, is my wife. The Coordinator for Kakata Prison-even what is on him today is one of my productions”.
He spoke during a recent visit of the Ambassadors of the European Union, Germany, France and Sweden, among others to the Kakata Central prison in Margibi County.
Take skills seriously
Fayiah used the occasion to urge his colleagues and other inmates who remain incarcerated to take the vocational skills training program funded by the EU very serious.
He noted that though it remains the responsibility of the government to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens, inmates and convicts who are being reprimanded from crimes committed should muster the courage to acquire vocational skills in a bid to adequately prepare for life after prison.
“Today, most of us can be crying ‘oh the government-things hard, things hard’ because we don’t want to do things that will help us. Every one of us want to depend on the government and government will not do all. They will do some, but they will not do all. So, the little you learn; when God blessed you-you go out there; you should stand on it and focus to do something on it tomorrow for your future”.
Fayiah told reporters that though he felt “bad” for being in prison for a crime he did not commit, he managed to place keen focus on learning how to sew-a move he claimed-makes him a lovely and respectable person in his community.
A cry for help
Fayiah, however, called on the governments of European Countries that are part of the EU and donor partners to see reason to complement the efforts of those who they have aided while in prison to enable them provide similar training to disadvantaged youths and others in their respective communities.
“I am asking the donors to help us because, the community I am living, lots of people are coming to me and say I should train them. And you can’t learn, and you take what you learned and keep it to yourself”.
He added that the European Union should help provide those who they have trained with materials to be able to impact the knowledge and skills into those who are willing to acquire vocational skills in tailoring.
Fayiah expressed willingness to train disadvantaged youths and other inmates when he is accorded the requisite support to construct a better shop and purchase materials as part of his contribution towards Liberia’s rebuilding process.
He added: “We Liberians are the ones to build Liberia. Liberia cannot be built by different person”.
Nathaniel Manneh is another beneficiary of the European Union Delegation to Liberia’s funded Strengthening Democracy and Respect for Fundamental Human Rights of Prisoners program.
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He was convicted of statutory rape in Kakata on November 25, 2013. He was convicted for 12 years but spent seven years in prison.
He disclosed that following his conviction, he was shortlisted by prison authorities to form part of the program which serves as a mean of survival.
“I want to firstly say thank you to the prison authorities, SHED, Finn Aid and RHRAP for the program at the prison here. I never thought of being a Tailor while I was being confined here; but when the program came, through the Superintendent (of prison)-my name was taken and I participated in the program. I graduated with the skill of tailoring. I am presently out there sewing”.
Manneh, however, vowed to “do the right thing”, be a law-abiding citizen and concentrate on his skills acquired to realize his full potential.
He noted that though he has not been able to open his personal tailoring shop, he remains grateful for the opportunity accorded him to serve as one of the trainers at the tailoring training program at the Kakata Central Prison.
He expressed joy over the consistent trust and confidence reposed in him and others by school authorities in the county to sew the gowns for their graduates for closing programs.
Giving an overview of the project earlier, SHED Executive Director, Mrs. Joyce Qweglay Pajibo, commended the EU Ambassador and others for taking ownership of their various projects being done in the country.
She disclosed that the project started in 2018 with Finn Church Aid to curtail over crowdedness at various prison facilities across the country.
“There are human rights issues in Liberia but the people in pre-trial detention faced graver issues. Before the inception of this project, their rights were violated without any notice or concern. It might not have been the intention of the law enforcement officers to do that, but we have many laws on books in Liberia, but implementation is any issue. And this was no exception also about the human rights issues faced by people in detention in all of the prisons in Liberia”.
“Based on that, SHED, Finn Church Aid and RHRAP thought it wise to advance this project idea to the European Union (EU) to be able to support the prisons particularly with the over crowdedness issue and enforcing and promoting the rights of people in detention and in prison in general”.
Madam Pajibo attributed the over crowdedness of prisons across Liberia to low capacity of prison facilities, slow adjudication of cases and the violations of the rights of pre-trail detainees’ rights who remain behind bars for more than 30 days, adding that, “people were in prison for more than 60 days, more than a year and dashed there for nothing completely”.
“Many of our prisons were built to cater for the small Liberian population that we had before. But right now, as you see, all of the prisons have become overcrowded because our population is growing and the prisons still remain the same. Like this prison that you see here in Kakata-was only built to host 60 inmates. But before this project started in this prison, we had about 190 sometimes.
She disclosed that the population at the prison facility in Kakata has drastically reduced as a result of the fast-tracking of hearings or cases.
Madam Pajibo noted that a psycho-social support component was added to the project to help prevent similar prisoners from being released and returning back to the prison facility on a regular basis.
“We realized in the project that there was no mind transformation process with the work that was being done. So, we added the psycho-social support that is being provided by our lawyers. Secondly, people went into the communities with no skills at all. They saw themselves not being useful to the communities; they felt excluded from the communities. So, we introduced the skill training tailoring program. We have found that component to be very useful”.
“The project also addressed issues of awareness on human rights. We hired the James A. A. Pierre Judicial Institute that comes to do projects on rule of law, respect for fundamental human rights and respect for the rights of prisoners”.
For his part, the Head of the European Union Delegation to Liberia, Ambassador Laurent Delahousse, described prison as a “very delicate matter in every country”.
He emphasized that the rights of prisoners must be protected though they are being reprimanded for alleged acts committed.
He noted that prisoners should also be accorded the necessary support while in prison to enable them become productive citizens in their various communities and the country at large after they are released from these prison facilities.
“For the people who are in this prison-their time here must not be an end; their time here can be a time of new beginning. People have a history; people are here for a reason, but that past must be the past and we must help, through prisons- people to have a future to return to their life or to build a new life”.
Ambassador Delahousse further commended the project’s donors and implementers for helping to “reintegrate people who have paid for what they did in the past.”
He further assured of the European Union’s unwavering commitment and support to “deliver to the people of Liberia and the society”.
He added that the EU will continue to help “even the people who have suffered themselves” in the Liberian society.
Tehran suspends dialogue and cooperation with Brussels on terrorism, drugs, refugees and human rights due to EU sanctions against Iranian persons for human rights violations, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday.
On Monday, the EU Council decided to extend its sanctions it first imposed in 2011 as a response to “serious human rights violations in Iran” until 13 April 2022. These measures include a travel ban and an asset freeze, and a ban on exports to Iran of equipment that may be used “for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications”.
The EU Council also added eight persons and three entities to this sanctions list in view of their role in the crackdown of the November 2019 demonstrations in Iran. Currently, there are 89 individuals and 4 entities on the list.
NUR-SULTAN, 13 April 2021 — OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde, concluded her official visit to Kazakhstan on 12 April. Nur-Sultan was the first stop on a four-day long trip of the Chairperson-in-Office to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Minister Linde will also visit Turkmenistan virtually through an online meeting with the Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan.
“My visit to Central Asia this week demonstrates the OSCE’s strong support to the participating States in the region and to their efforts towards fulfilling our common commitments and principles,” Linde said.
Chairperson-in-Office Linde discussed the priorities of the Swedish Chairpersonship, with its emphasis on defending the European security order and upholding the OSCE concept of comprehensive security. The interrelatedness between political and economic security, human rights, democracy, the rule of law and equality constitute the very foundation of this concept.
Talks with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Deputy Prime Minster – Minister of Foreign Affairs Mukhtar Tileuberdi focused on further strengthening key areas of co-operation.
Underlining the importance of the Astana Commemorative Declaration, adopted by participating States in 2010, the Chairperson said: “The declaration is our common achievement, as it highlights adherence to the OSCE’s key commitments. Today, these key commitments, re-enforced in the Astana Summit, remain valid.”
During her trip, Minister Linde met with civil society representatives and discussed current issues, including challenges to be addressed in view of the COVID-19 pandemic as well the National Development Plan until 2025, which was adopted this March by the National Economy Ministry and the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms.
Linde also met Ambassador Volker Frobarth, the newly appointed Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan. She expressed her strong support for the office and its programmatic activities.
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Hassan Kukah, says though Nigerians profess two main religions with strong themes of love and togetherness, such themes are rarely ever practised.
The Bishop has now attributed the frequent rise against one another to the lack of practice of love.
He made the remark on Monday at a ceremony in Adamawa State where he was invited as a guest of honour.
“In Nigeria, religion has become a liability to us. The fruits of Christianity and Islam are alien to us, otherwise, we will not be seeing the fights that go on almost daily around the country. We must begin to do what our religions demand of us,” Kukah said.
The occasion was the commissioning of the 86 housing units which the Yola Catholic Diocese built for the Christians and Muslims who had been living as internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the head church of the Yola Catholic Diocese.
Bishop Kukah hailed the Yola Catholic Diocese for catering so equally to Christian and Muslim IDPs alike and especially for building a mosque rather than just a church at the estate.
He said the dream started seven years ago when his diocese was suddenly saddled with thousands of IDPs to house and to feed, and that the need for the estate grew stronger by the years when it became evident that some of the IDPs could not go back to their original homes because they had lost everything.
He announced that even after resettling the IDPs at the new estate, his diocese would keep providing their food and other necessities till later in the year when the IDPs, who are expected to utilize the large expanses of farmland surrounding the estate.
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<strong>One thing I found really fascinating in your book is when you say that Masaryk had this idea of, with the new country, also creating a new religion? What exactly was he hoping to achieve with that? Or what was it even?</strong>
“Yes, this is one of the most fascinating aspects, and an overlooked aspect, of his career as a politician.
“He saw Czechoslovakia as not just a new republic but one in which politics, morality and religion would be combined.
“He was raised Catholic, he became kind of Protestant – he never really went to church.
“He was influenced by his wife, who was an American Unitarian.
“He saw Czechoslovakia as not just a new republic but one in which politics, morality and religion would be combined.”
“His ideas of a new religion he drew a lot from 19th and 20th century scholarship on the sociology of religion, on the history of the Bible, on theology.
“So he wanted this religion to be really stripped of all he had experienced in the Catholic Church, in terms of hierarchy, in terms of rules, in terms of ritual and so forth.
“He wanted a religion that would be purely individualistic, in which the individual person would have a relationship with God; he believed in this idea of a personal connection with God.
“The individual would have this relationship with God and that relationship would motivate the individual to serve others, to serve the community, to serve the state.
“And this was his hope for Czechoslovakia, to have something like a civil religion that would inspire the citizens of this new state to serve the community and create a cohesive society.”
It struck me reading your book that it was so ambitious in the first place to create a new country, and then on top of that to also want to introduce a new religion for the people… I was wondering if we should regard Masaryk as being extremely ambitious, or some kind of megalomaniac, that he wanted to bring in a religion as well as a state for the two nations?
Photo: CEU PRESS
“I write at the beginning of the book of my visits with the late historian Antonín Klímek, who wrote a two-volume history of the new republic, Boj o hrad, and a number of other important books on the ‘20s and ‘30s in Czechoslovakia.
“I remember visiting him as he was working on his books about Masaryk and the First Republic, and the one thing that he could not really comprehend was Masaryk’s goal of creating a new religion.
“I remember sitting in his office and he would wave his arms around dramatically and would exclaim, He wanted to start a new religion!
“For Klímek this was just incomprehensible: How does someone have whether the ambition or the arrogance to think they are going to create a new religion?
“And, as I find in the book, there were a number of people around him who were inspired by his ambition, they were inspired by his vision.
“But ultimately he was really aiming to far, he was reaching too much to the stars, and both religious believers who trusted him, as well as more secular figures, such as Karel Čapek and Ferdinand Peroutka, just saw him as overreaching his ambition.”
Masaryk has become for many Czechs this kind of idealised figure of a leader. But you say that in the beginning, when he first became president, he considered being a benign dictator. I’m curious: Was Masaryk at heart a democrat?
“He was not a democrat in terms of having any faith in the messy processes of democracy.”
“Where we see the root of, how to say, the doubts we could have about Masaryk’s commitment to democracy is in how much he trusted those closest to him, beginning with his family and them moving out to his closest circle, and this of course includes Edvard Beneš.
“He did have the sense, and he uses this term to describe himself and his family and those closest to him, that he was an aristocrat, in the sense that he believed people of talent, people of morality, should have a leading role in society – and he saw himself and Beneš and his family as being among this aristocracy.
“He was not a democrat in terms of having any faith in the messy processes of democracy.
“He had no respect for political parties. He really didn’t have much trust in the whole process of elections and campaigns and so forth.
“He saw democracy as functioning best as a managed democracy, with his family and his supporters, the members of the so-called Castle – his group of supporters and closest confidantes – as the ones who would steer the democratic state in a responsible direction.
“So ultimately if we think of democracy in terms of elections and parties and the messy work of competing for votes, making alliances, making coalitions, then no, that’s not what he saw democracy as.”
Prague Castle is also a major focus of your book and you write about how Masaryk made the Castle a “central symbol of national democratic ideals” when he became president. That made me wonder, What was the Castle like prior to 1918?
Bruce Berglund, photo: Marta Berglund
“This is fascinating. I did research in the archive of Prague Castle and was able to see some of the photographs from before the renovation and it’s really much, much different from what we see today.
“For one, imagine the Third Courtyard. I know you’ve been there – any visitor to Prague has been to the Third Courtyard, the area that surrounds St. Vitus Cathedral, with the Obelisk.
“This area was cobblestoned. It was really rough, it was uneven – there were multiple levels, or multiple surfaces, to the courtyard.
“And the Castle itself was in such disrepair that it wasn’t even able to function as a centre of government.
“So this was the first order of business, when the government moves in 1918: How do we even use this place?
“One of my favourite anecdotes that comes out of the archive is that early on when Masaryk wants to have a state dinner at the Castle they had to go down to Obecní dům and borrow silverware and china to use in the Castle dining room, because there was very little.
“The situation was made worse, actually, when all of these different ministries and government officials moved into the Castle right away, in November 1918, and they start claiming space.
“And then people seeking government jobs start coming in.
“The Castle was in such disrepair that it wasn’t even able to function as a centre of government.”
“There are references in the archives that people were breaking furniture and dirtying the carpets and so forth.
“So this was a disordered, kind of chaotic environment in 1918 and 1919.”
The man charged with reshaping the Castle was the Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik. How did he come to get commissioned to do that work, especially considering that he was, you say, a devout or even mystical Catholic and Masaryk was, to some degree at least, anti-Catholic?
“Yes, this is a fascinating question and it’s something that I hunted in my research.
“There are only a few statements Masaryk himself made, to his daughter Alice Masaryková, about why he trusted so deeply in Jože Plečnik, despite the fact that Plečnik was Catholic and Masaryk was an opponent of the Catholic Church.
“A big part of it was that I think Masaryk saw Plečnik as something of a kindred spirit.
“Plečnik had an ascetic personality, Plečnik was rigidly moral like Masaryk and Plečnik had a great devotion to the classical period, to classical architecture, just as Masaryk was a great lover of classical philosophy.
“I think that’s what draws those two together.
Jože Plečnik, photo: Public Domain
“Masaryk said to his daughter once: ‘Plečnik understands what we’re doing here – we don’t have to explain it to him.’
“So there was a sense that Masaryk had that Plečnik understood the importance, the gravity, of what was being done at the Castle. That this wasn’t simply about making a set of buildings functional as a seat of government – it was creating a symbol of democracy, but also a sacred space.
“And that’s why Masaryk entrusted Plečnik with the entire Castle project.”
Something else interesting that you say is that Plečnik, when he was redesigning Prague Castle, was attacked from all sides?
“Yes. Initially I should say that Plečnik was recommended by the Guild of Czech Architects.
“Plečnik had been teaching architecture in Prague since 1912.
“He had a terrific reputation among his students, he had a terrific reputation among fellow architects and artists, and that’s the reason why Plečnik’s name first came to the attention of Masaryk.
“Now when Plečnik beings the Castle project he continues to hold the respect of the artistic community.
“Masaryk saw Plečnik as something of a kindred spirit.”
“But as the renovations are underway Czech nationalists, in particular conservative Catholic nationalists, as well as Communists and Socialists, see what Plečnik is doing as a violation of the tradition of the Castle.
“They don’t like the fact that Plečnik is a Slovene.
“But also, as I talk about in the book, the criticism of Plečnik and the Castle project was really veiled criticism of Masaryk.
“You couldn’t criticise Masaryk directly. For one it was against the law!
“But he was just so respected, so revered, during the time in the 1920s that critics on both the right and the left couldn’t attack the president directly.
“What they did instead is they used Plečnik and the Castle project as the stand-in, the proxy for their criticisms.”
Plečnik is of course known for the Castle gardens and also some stairways. But how deeply did his redesign impact the Castle? How much did he change, apart from the things that everyone knows?
“I was able to go inside the Castle, into the offices and into the apartments that he designed for Masaryk.
Third Courtyard of Prague Castle, photo: Kristýna Maková
“And that’s fascinating, just in terms of creating a functional work space.
“Masaryk didn’t live at the Castle, but he did have apartment space there.
“So to see those spaces… granted the area that Plečnik designed for the president is a small corner of the Castle.
“In his work in the 1920s and into the 1930s – he resigned as the Castle architect in 1935 – he did really transform the exterior.
“He did not complete all the projects that he intended and all the projects that Masaryk intended for him.
“He wanted to continue the gardens to the north of the Castle. He wanted to completely redo the street that goes up from Malá Strana to Hradčany – he wanted to redesign that entire area, all the way over to Letná.
“Alice Masaryková wanted Plečnik to do this as well, and this was the aim by the 1930s.
“But by this time point Masaryk was old, he was infirm, he did not have enough authority, he did not have enough energy to really push these renovations.
“Masaryk is inspiring and yet the ideas he presents are not concrete ideas.”
“And of course the Depression was going on, so there was not the money available.
“So Plečnik did recast the Castle exterior, but the vision that he had – and we have his plans, we have his models – was far more extensive, to completely the entire area of Hradčany.”
Finally, getting back to Masaryk, he started out with such lofty ideals – how successful was he?
“He was not very successful.
“He had high ideals. But what I talk about in the book is how his ideals were viewed by his closest supporters, so by people like Karel Čapek, by Edvard Beneš, by the Protestant theologian Josef Hromadka.
“And all of these figures, whether we see it from a secular standpoint in the case of Čapek, or from a Christian standpoint in the case of Hromadka… all these people were inspired by Masaryk, but they had their doubts about the vision he had for this moral republic built upon a civil religion.”
But what about the idea that he did have success in the longer term, in that he became this ideal for so many Czechs and was referred to by Havel and others of his ilk, that he became this kind of “gold standard” of a Czech?
Teresian wing of Prague Castle, photo: Kristýna Maková
“Yes, this is a good point.
“I remember a poll that was done in Lidové noviny years ago of the most important Czechs of the 20th century and Masaryk is still regarded as the greatest Czech.
“So he is this inspiring figure. But the point I make in the book is that he is inspiring and yet the ideas he presents are not concrete ideas.
“He’s someone you could say who lifts the spirit but doesn’t really provide practical teaching, which is ironic because Masaryk stressed his ideas were all about practical application.
“One of my favourite quotations, and I’m trying to think if it was from Jan Patočka or another Czech philosopher, was said Masaryk was like Socrates: He was this dynamic gadfly, this inspiring figure. What Masaryk didn’t have was a Plato, someone who would systematise his ideas and create something concrete for us.
“He also didn’t have an Aristotle, someone who would make it even more clear for the lay person.
“So yes, you can see why he’s inspiring, but there’s nothing concrete you can hold onto about Masaryk’s ideas.”