Media release

#mindpower: Slovakia and Latvia evaluate the past and set new goals for the future

27 April 2015

On 4 May, Latvia will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the restoration of its independence. This offers an opportunity both to evaluate what has been achieved and to set new goals. In the latest episode of the #mindpower project, the Latvian poet Rainis and the Slovak diplomat Pavol Demeš look back at the past and outline future perspectives.

The 16th episode of #mindpower is dedicated to Rainis’ political activities. At the end of the 19th century he became active in the Jaunā strāva (New Current) movement and took part in the 1905 revolutionary events. In 1920, Rainis and his wife Aspazija were greeted by thousands of their compatriots on their return to Latvia from exile in Switzerland. As a candidate for the Social Democratic Party, Rainis was elected a member of the Constitutional Assembly (1920) and a Member of Parliament (1922, 1925, 1926).

From December 1926 until January 1928, Rainis held the position of Minister for Education, and his greatest achievements in this position are listed in this episode of #mindpower. At the end of the scene, Rainis (played by the Latvian musician Goran Gora) points out that the greatness and future existence of a nation do not depend on its political, but rather on its cultural, achievements.

“Small nations will last only if they keep pace with the leaders in terms of culture … Small nations that have understood and adhere to these principles will assuredly and incontestably gain and retain their place in the great family of nations”, Rainis said in an interview with the Pēdējā Brīdī newspaper in 1927.

In the second part of the episode, Pavol Demeš welcomes viewers to ‘the heart of the European Union’ – Slovakia – and emphasises the positive changes that the country has experienced since it gained independence in 1993.

pavol_demes
Pavol Demeš. Photo: Jura Podnieka studija

Pavol Demeš was the Slovak Minister for Foreign Affairs between 1991 and 1992 and the Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Slovak Republic between 1993 and 1997. He has also served as the Director for Central and Eastern Europe of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He has received the EU-US Democracy and Civil Society Award (1998) and the USAID Democracy and Governance Award (1999).

Pavol Demeš reads an aphorism by Rainis that sounds like a prophecy for the future of Latvia and Slovakia: “A time will come when man will not despise others or himself. Only then will the animal era be over and man will become Mankind. Then we will divide history in two and the new era will really begin.”

The #mindpower (#domasspēks in Latvian) project is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Latvian poets Rainis and Aspazija. It features a collection of 29 short films in which celebrities from all the EU Member States read excerpts from the works of Rainis and Aspazija in their native language. The project is part of the Presidency cultural programme.

Each week a new video is released on the Presidency's website EU2015.LV. You can also watch the episodes on the Presidency's official Youtube channel and on the project's Facebook page.

Contact
Linda Jākobsone
Head of Presidency Communications and Public Relations Department