With the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of its major personages, Slovak European and Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák said on Monday, April 8.
“It was with great sorrow that I received the news of Thatcher's passing,” he added. Whilst never meeting her and not always agreeing with her views, Lajčák said that he always held her in high esteem as a stateswoman who changed the face of not only British but also international politics.
"An eminent and strong personality of British and world politics, who attained respect for her significant personal contribution to the make-up of today's political map of Europe and the trans-Atlantic world," said Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič of Thatcher, while expressing his sadness at her death.
According to Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), Thatcher – prime minister from May 1979 to November 1990 – was "a leader with a unique will, vision and determination, which enabled her to go against the flow". "She was feared not only by the British left and the all-powerful trade unions but also by communist governments behind the [erstwhile] Iron Curtain," the TASR newswire quoted a statement by the party which also lamented her death. Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) chairman Pavol Frešo also expressed his grief at the death of Britain's only female prime minister, while highlighting the significance of Thatcher's policies also for the communist Czechoslovakia, saying that they contributed to the demise of the Soviet Union and the totalitarian regime. "Her legacy of government cost control, reforms and of economic stabilisation of countries should be relevant even today amidst the current economic crisis in the European Union and problems faced by countries in debt," said Frešo.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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