Open Society Institute – Sofia and The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate "Andrey Nikolov" present:

Political Malaise in Central Europe: Causes and Solutions

public lecture by Jiri Pehe, Czech Republic

Jiri Pehe, once Chief Political Advisor to former Czech President Vaclav Havel, is a political analyst and Director of New York University in Prague. Pehe is a member of numerous international and Czech NGOs and civic organizations. He has written extensively on the developments in Eastern Europe, and has contributed hundreds of analytical articles to American, Czech and German periodicals and academic journals.

A graduate of Charles University in Prague (Law and Philosophy) Jiri Pehe fled out of Czechoslovakia in 1981 and settled in New York to become a Director of East European Studies at Freedom House. Moving back to Europe, he worked as an analyst of Central European affairs and later as a Director of Central European Research at the Research Institute of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich. From 1997 Pehe settled in Prague to first become the Director of Analysis and Research Department at the Open Media Research Institute there, and later – the Director of the Political Department of Czech President Vaclav Havel.

In his lecture in Sofia he will analyze the causes of the political crises in most of the countries in the region after their successful accession to the European Union in 2004. He will look for an explanation of this phenomenon not only in the history of the region (its specific political culture, for example), but also in the present developments there, most notably the rise of populism after EU accession. He will also identify the deeper roots of the political malaise in the region, characterized with a crisis of political leadership, at least partly caused by the strong influence of the modern media on politics. Jiri Pehe will conclude his lecture by offering a series of possible solutions to the political crisis in Central Europe.

According to the Czech analyst, the political malaise in the region can be overcome by new generation of politicians characterized by political thought free from communist patterns. However, the potential of crisis surmount depends on the development of vital civic societies in these countries, which can iniciate the finding of a proper political place not only in the EU but in the global world as well.

For more information: http://www.pehe.cz/zapisnik/zapisnik_view)

The public lecture of Jiri Pehe is the opening event of the lecture series “The Crisis in Central and Eastern Europe”, a joint project of The Red House for Culture and Debate – Sofia and Open Society Institute – Sofia. The project aims at initiating a public debate on the hot issue of the political crisis in Central and Eastern Europe after the successful EU accession of the countries there. The guest lecturers will be prominent public figures and intellectuals from the region, who will present their analyses to the Bulgarian public.

June 11 (Monday), 7.00 p.m.
Red hall
In Englsh with translation into Bulgarian.
Entrance: 2/1 BGN





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