President of the Republic Stresses the Importance of the Vilenica Literary Festival

Lokev, 6.9.2008  |  press release

The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Danilo Türk, today attended the 23rd Vilenica International Literary Festival. In his welcome address, he emphasised the role of Vilenica as a literary forum embedded in the geographical, cultural and spiritual setting of Central Europe. After its historical enlargement, Europe now also includes Central and Eastern Europe, both politically and economically an increasingly important part of Europe. However, while the economic progress of the region leaves no doubt, its political and cultural assets are yet to be discovered, according to President Türk.

Eastern Europe in the past was a site of intellectual, philosophical and political experiments, which might have been spiritually based in Western Europe but actually led to tragic consequences in its Eastern regions, explained Mr Türk. In his view, one of the reasons for this could be the fact that the intellectual contribution, philosophical depth and writer's talent of Eastern and Central Europe never received sufficient recognition, nor did they have sufficient influence. This is why the Vilenica festival is on an important mission to affirm the intellectual literary creation of this European region and establish its position in Europe and the rest of the world so as to counterbalance history, asserted President Türk.

On the other hand, Vilenica is also important for helping us answer the question of where we are going. This of course leads us to ask ourselves where we come from, he continued. This festival, Mr Türk concluded, creates dialogue and thus gives us a well-balanced multitude of answers to both of these questions: in a Europe which is shaping itself, Vilenica plays a vital role, which in years to come can only grow more important than today.