My interview about the Honorary Consul tasks, Switzerland and Czechia

In 2016, the name Czechia was registered in the official UN lists as the short name of the Czech Republic in English. However, the dispute over the international name of the Czech Republic did not end there. One camp insists on "the Czech Republic", and the other uses a short form. "Should we give up the 480-year-old name of our country because of a few uninformed people?" says Václav ?ulista, Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic in Basel, in an interview with EuroZprávy.cz.

How does a chemist make it to a diplomatic post?

I worked at Novartis Basel for 16 years and founded the Czechoslovak Club there. One of the Slovaks knew the Slovak ambassador in Switzerland very well, so he asked me if I wanted to become a Slovak consul. We got on very well with the ambassador, and she told me that she felt obliged to say to me that the Czechs were also looking. I love Slovakia and speak fluently Slovak. But, of course, I preferred my home country.

The whole process was prolonged by the Covid and took about two years. First, one had to submit three letters of recommendation from prominent figures in Czech life in Switzerland. Then both criminal records - the Czech and the Swiss. Next, you go through a screening process at the Foreign Ministry, which consists of interviews with many people from different departments of the Foreign Ministry. Finally, the Foreign Minister will sign the appointment if all goes well.

The Czech Foreign Ministry then informs the Swiss Foreign Ministry, finally approving the appointment. This process is called the exequatur. Then, finally, you will receive a beautiful decree of work signed by the President of the Confederation and the Federal Chancellor.

The office of the Honorary Consul is unpaid, so I do it in my spare time. The consul even bears the costs of running the consulate from his own funds and transfers the fees collected to the embassy at the end of each quarter. This is how honorary consuls work all over the world.

Switzerland is not an exotic country, but let me ask you. What did you have to get used to in the beginning? Was there anything that surprised you about the Swiss way of life?

I had to get used to almost nothing in Switzerland. I come from a Catholic family, and so does my Swiss wife, so we celebrate the same holidays. When I came to Switzerland in 1990, I spoke fluent German; I only learned the Swiss dialect.

After three years, some people asked me if I was from the canton of Valais because I have such a strange accent, and people think if they can't place you, you're from there.

Have you ever committed a diplomatic faux pas?

I haven't committed a diplomatic faux pas yet. Maybe once, I was a little embarrassed when I interpreted for his Excellency, the?Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation to the Czech Republic. So instead of translating what he said, I repeated the sentence after him in the Swiss dialect. Then he kicked me under the table and told me to translate. That happens to every interpreter sometimes, they said.

How do you assess Czech-Swiss relations? Are there any points of friction?

Czech-Swiss relations are at an excellent level, and I don't know of any friction points. Czechs and Slovaks still have a pretty good image in Switzerland thanks to the emigration of many successful and qualified people in 1948 and 1968.

Do the "regular" Swiss know Czechia at all?

Swiss people know Czechia mainly through sport, but I still feel that it is a country far to the east. For example, when we go to an ice hockey tournament in Czechia, people are surprised at how fast you can get there. When I show them that Prague is 150 km further west than Vienna on a map, they are very amazed. Nevertheless, everyone likes Czechia and admires the beauty of our towns, villages and landscape.

Do you have a lot to do as a consul? Do Czech tourists often get into trouble in Switzerland?

My duties as honorary consul take up about one day a week. I don't think Czech tourists get into trouble very often in Switzerland. So far, I have not had to deal with such cases. The work of an honorary consul is mainly similar to the job at Czechpoint. That means checking signatures and certifying copies of documents. I also successfully help Czech companies enter the Swiss market because Czech companies have a lot to offer.

Switzerland is known for its direct democracy, among other things, and referendums are held frequently. In your opinion, would this form of government also be suitable for Czechia?

I don't think that direct democracy in Switzerland today would work in Czechia. Because Switzerland has also come to this form of democracy after many decades, I think society really has to be ready for it. I am not a political scientist, but I don't believe that this system can be grafted onto the political structures in Czechia.

You advocate the name "Czechia" instead of "the Czech Republic". What makes you think that?

I would distinguish between using a formal name and a short name. The formal name "the Czech Republic" has its justification in diplomatic protocol, of course, where it belongs. But it does not belong in everyday life.

Two factors have prompted me to do so: First, our country needs a short name that can describe our country in its historical continuity. The word Czechia obviously fulfils this; "the Czech Republic" confines us to the period since 1993. The name Czechia originally comes from Latin, as do many state names in English with the suffix -ia, including the English names of our historical countries (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia). The first use of the name Czechia is documented in the Latin Chronicles of Bohemia by Václav Hájek of Libo?any in 1541.

The second factor is destination marketing. After 29 years of our state's existence and almost seventy million dollars invested in advertising "the Czech Republic", Czechoslovakia is still better known as "the Czech Republic".

People abroad simply don't remember the clunky term because formal names for most countries are never used in common parlance. "Czech" is pronounced exactly the same in English as bank cheque and check. So the term is ambiguous and means the death of any brand.

Moreover, there are 160 republics as independent states globally, another 22 as autonomous republics alone in Russia. All the unrecognised states in the world stress that they are republics to reinforce their international legitimacy.

Moreover, the Czech Republic is abbreviated and mangled in many different forms, most often in "Czech", which means adjective Czech, Czech language or Czech person in English.

How many different ambiguous versions of our country's name will the average foreigner identify with?

The official name simply does not work in destination marketing and never will. That is why foreigners still remember the long, if difficult to pronounce, short name Czechoslovakia and no one remembers the various forms of the formal name the Czechoslovak Republic.

On the other hand, opponents claim that "Czechia" can easily be confused with "Chechnya", i.e. Chechnya. Even the English version of Wikipedia warns of confusion. What is your counter-argument?

The claim that Czechia is confused with Chechnya is in line with the slogan "If you want to beat the dog, you can always find a stick".

After the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, "Chechen Republic" was confused with "Czech Republic" on American television, so insisting on using "Czech Republic" does not solve this hypothetical problem at all.

The possible confusion between Czechia and Chechnya is only discussed by opponents of the short name in Czechia, who have deliberately created this myth.?

And, of course, the Czechs also wrote it into the English Wikipedia. Besides, "Chechnya" is not an independent state, so there can be no confusion on the international stage - in sports, for example. In other Germanic languages related to English, the name Czechia is so established that no one confuses it with Chechnya. If people confuse Czechia and Chechnya, they also confuse Slovakia and Slovenia, Iran and Iraq, Austria and Australia, and I could list many more. Should we give up the 480-year-old name of our country because of a few uninformed people? This absurd idea shows the lack of national self-confidence of the opponents of the short name Czechia.

Is the name "Czechia" thriving on the international stage?

The short name is very well received abroad. One reason for this is that people are simply used to the short name of our country from their mother tongues. For example, no Germanic language uses the formal name of our country used in everyday speech, only the short name. Therefore, unlike the English, we simply did not interfere with them regarding what we should call our country.

The name Czechia has been used by companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft (e.g. Bing and LinkedIn), Netflix, EU institutions, UNESCO, IATA, CIA World Factbook, renowned maps and navigation systems (e.g. TomTom, Oxford Atlas of the World), more recent statistics and Covid-19 maps (WHO, Worldometer, Johns Hopkins University), Ice Hockey Association, etc.

Unfortunately, the most significant opposition to the short name comes from Czechia. Unfortunately, history is repeating itself with Czechoslovakia, which was ridiculed abroad and vehemently opposed at home, for example, by the ?apek brothers. However, within 10 years, everyone got used to it, and to this day, Czechoslovakia is a well-known brand.

But the word Czechoslovakia was a complete reinvention "pulled out of a hat" by T. G. Masaryk and R. ?tefánik. So the correct translation of the original name Czechoslovakia would be Czechia-Slovakia.