President of Latvia took part in the democracy festival ‘Lampa’ today. During discussion titled ‘Making words come alive’, Egils Levits shared his thoughts about words of different categories with young people. Discussion focused on how we perceive such words as democracy, laws, citizen, do, know, love, proud, responsible and included.
‘Justice is one of the key concepts in democracy. Democracy allows people with different opinions to agree on common goals,’ Egils Levits said to youngsters during discussion about the term democracy. According to President, Latvia has reached a rather high level of political maturity and understanding where people are less susceptible to populism.
‘There is this dichotomy in human nature – we have rational mind and also emotions. When one is emotionally attached to his or her land and also has rational mind to help his or her country, that is what we call active civic stance,’ Egils Levits said when discussion the concept of citizen. There are active and passive citizens in democracy, President pointed out. ‘Active citizen can change laws that they deem inadequate. Active citizens are aware of their responsibility for their country. They are ready do good to their society and thus also themselves.’
Egils Levits was also asked how he would describe love for your country. According to President, love is a strong emotion driven by mind. ‘These emotions come out at times of sorrow. If you feel pain when country is struggling, it means you really love your country!’
President Levits talked about the roots of national pride when discussion turned to the concept of pride. ‘One of the sources of pride for our nation is the sense of belonging to a community that they appreciate and love. Pride is also associated with a sense of accomplishment and gratification of achieving something significant, especially when it has been tough,’ President of Latvia said.
President Levits was joined by Aiva Enija Erneste, Year 1 student of Valmiera Design and Art College, Beāte Skrabutena, Year 12 student of Pļaviņas Secondary School, Madara Marta Kosīte, Year 11 student of Mārupe State Gymnasium, and Kārlis Ziemelis, Riga Teika Secondary School graduate of 2022.
