Under the patronage of the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute, The Italian magazine ”Progetto RC” in Prague is publishing a book to remember Vaclav Havel, the Czech statesman, ten years after his death. The work “Václav Havel. A multi-voiced portrait of the hero of the Velvet Revolution” is a collection of interviews given over the year by eighteen personalities linked to the figure of the dissident and human rights activist who later became president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.
The interviewees included diplomats, politicians, former ministers, academics, journalists, and historians who had the opportunity to meet and work with the former dissident personally. The most outstanding are the testimonies of the former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, a close friend of the former Czech President, Prince Karel Schwarzenberg, former Foreign Minister, who was Havel’s chancellor at Prague Castle, Cardinal Dominik Duka, who shared a period of imprisonment with the former dissident during the regime, and Michael Žantovský, writer, politician and diplomat, who was President Havel’s spokesman and to whom he dedicated a biography recently translated and distributed in Italy. The book was edited by Amedeo Gasparini, with a preface by RAI journalist and writer Sergio Tazzer.
The book’s presentation was held in the Baroque Chapel of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague in the presence of the Italian Ambassador to the Czech Republic Mauro Marsili and, among others, the Institute’s director Alberta Lai. As pointed out by the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Progetto Repubblica Ceca” Giovanni Usai, the publication has a non-profit character and aims to achieve a charitable purpose. The book’s distribution is not subject to a cover price but to a donation to be donated to organisations engaged in activities consistent with the spirit of the former dissident and human rights activist. This initiative aims precisely to honour the legacy of a man whose moral stature and values are still a fundamental point of reference for the political class and the society in the Czech Republic and Europe,” Gasparini explained.
