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TOAST FOR THE PRINCE OF WALES
The state dinner
Toast by President Milan Kucan
Brdo by Kranj, 2 November 1998
"A legend says that when God created the world, a handful of the most beautiful, most wonderful things remained in his hands. God scattered this handful of beauties over Slovenia", presented President Kucan Slovenia to his honourable guest.
Your Royal Highness, I welcome you with the words: God keep you, gralva Venus. I welcome you thus with the words with which one of the last elected Slovene Princes in Medieval Karantania toasted a poet, Prince Ulrich of Liechtenstein.
We Slovenes are a nation that believes a legend about Slovenia. A legend that says that when God created the world, a handful of the most beautiful, most wonderful things remained in his hands. God scattered this handful of most marvellous beauties over Slovenia.
He said then: "Here will live happy people". And he went on to say that "song will be their holiday". And so it is. The Slovenes have sung throughout their history, when we rejoiced, when we suffered, when we rose against oppression. We sang, too, when three times this century we were faced with the reality that we were fighting for our existence, for the right to live as a respected nation under the free sun. We are a nation, which has chosen as its national anthem verses from a poem of our greatest poet, Dr. France Prešeren. Verses which say: "God's blessings on all nations, who long and work for that bright day, when o'er earth's habitations, no war, no strife shall hold its sway: Who long to see, that all men free, no more shall foes, but neighbours be".
Your Royal Highness, on behalf of such a nation, I cannot welcome You otherwise than as a friend. I cannot otherwise welcome You, who are a great humanist, philanthropist, a man who cares for the future of the world, the future of Earth, who cares what kind of heritage we leave to the generations coming after us, than as a man who knows that every person has the right to the chance to care for himself and the community.
I consider it an honour to be able to welcome You as such a man and friend, on behalf of my nation and the Slovene state. I also welcome you as a man who represents the United Kingdom, which is a friendly state, of friendly nations. Nations which proved their friendship in one of the hardest experiences of the second world war, when, together, we successfully defended the principles on which the new Europe is built. Great Britain has also shown this friendship during our transition to democracy, our transition to an independent state, and during our admission to European institutions. We understand them as the chance to enter the pan-European dialogue on the future of Europe. There must be room for all in this dialogue, and all have a shared responsibility for Europe's future.
It is a great pleasure, Your Royal Highness, to find that there is a great deal in common between Your and our views on this future. I would therefore first like to toast the United Kingdom, the well-being and prosperity of its citizens. On behalf of us all, I would like to propose a toast to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, whom I had the honour to meet in London on the 50th anniversary of the second world war. I would like to toast our friendship, and above all, Your Royal Highness, I would like to propose a toast to You, since there are only twelve days to Your fiftieth birthday. To a celebration which seems a great personal milestone when it is before us, and no longer seems such an achievement once it is behind us. I wish You all the best. To Your very good health!
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