MPs say country must remain true to democratic values on which First Republic was founded

In a debate devoted to the 100th anniversary of the birth of independent Czechoslovakia deputies of the lower house of Parliament stressed that the Czech Republic must remain true to the democratic values on which the First Republic was founded.

A declaration approved by the lower house on the occasion, says that humanism, freedom and democracy are the pillars of the modern-day Czech Republic, and that they must be cherished, protected and developed.

Honorary TOP 09 chair and former foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who said he was the only deputy to remember the first republic, noted that the country’s first President T.G. Masaryk had often spoken on the importance of Europeanism, which he said was something Czechs tended to underestimate today.

Social Democrat leader Jan Hamáček noted that on this important anniversary Czechs should remember those who had laid down their lives for freedom and democracy in the past 100 years.