e e [Music] to youris [Music] and [Music] [Music] the Eastern Block in the late 80s was a strange place to be for 40 years we had been pretending that we were creating Paradise on Earth but now slowly the truce was coming to the surface and the truth was that we were finished our communist societies had been financed by loans from Western Banks and there was no way we could pay them back we were simply broke in my country Hungary the party had no idea what to do somebody had to clear up the mess but who
name [Music] [Music] so to my complete surprise they appointed me a young Economist 40 years old to be the new prime minister of Hungary [Music] [Music] [Music] I should have been flattered but I felt so alone nobody expected me to survive and I had no friends in the party ranks it was well known that the system is a dead end my job was simply to save the country from bankruptcy so I had my first look at the national budget I gone through and went through as an accountant of of of the key features of the
budget among others was a big sum I discovered under a special code name it was under the home Ministry it turned out that the money was all about the 240 kilm of electrical fans on our border to Austria in other words the Iron Curtain [Music] it was designed to detect any perpetrator well before he could cross the border line electric signals would descend and Rockets would go [Music] off it was the pride of the Border troops but now it was failing [Music] for [Music] for fore that is no sense if we if you import the
technology from the West you have to pay it in hard currency the hard currency was not enough in the in the Hungarian coffers so you have to ask for a for a loan somewhere so this was really a crazy situation so I erased that item from my budget name it fore of fa I did what I thought was right but not everybody agreed with that certainly not Caro gross the leader of the party he was soon to teach me the rules of the game roughly a week Before Christmas the then time Minister for defense called
me up and said to me that you should come to see me because there are certain documents you should see and sign and he escorted me into the lift and interestingly the lift when it was moving was not moving upward but but downward and I immediately ask him that you have a special a special uh room for you downward from the in the basement just Maps everywhere and I noted on the table two books handwritten one in Russian and one in Hungarian but handwritten then came the big surprise I did not know that in the'
70s the party secretary and BV agreed to plant nuclear warheads on the soil of Hungary we lied we lied to the people for Torino Genova Valen Valen Val for I felt kind of depression you cannot build a system on lies so you can imagine you sign a document and uh at the same time you commit yourself not to tell this to anyone the closest advisors around me two of them they immediately recognized that something substantial changed I was not able to hide the surprise and the feeling and said I said not now I will never
ever tell you but even before Christmas I shared it with my two advisers [Music] so here I was on my way to Moscow meeting the Soviets who were the real rulers of my country for more than 40 years I felt a little pain in my stomach you have to understand my childhood in the early 50s dominated by the Communist Party hardliner Bolsheviks ruled the country I was roughly 8 n years old and my grandpa had a radio in the village I'm talking about 1956 late October November an uprisal for of of of the people against
the Tyranny against the Communist it was a revolution and now the Russians were coming to crush [Music] it with my small fingers I was in charge of trying to clear and clear the [Music] messages prime minister Imran was speaking to the people he had been part of the commun regime but now he had joined the people he had made the Russians promise that they would leave Hungary but the Soviet Union cheated him betrayed him and came back with the tanks [Music] sh part on [Music] [Music] so this is it this division of Europe as a
consequence of the second world war never ever will be changing this is our way of life we have to live and we have to accept the rule rulers they killed nearly 300 people among others Imran the then time prime minister were hanged was hanged and and killed big disappointment everywhere in my father's mind and heart never ever will change anything but I was thinking to myself is this aive for me should I really stay here in the bitterness and poverty just digging the weed and wait for some miracle or should I join the other side
join the system and make things better for myself maybe even for the country so I became the member of the Hungarian Communist party when I was 20 years old and I vividly remember I went back [Music] home during the Sunday luncheon I told the whole story to my father I became the member of the party he did not talk to me for 6 months look through me later on when I took [Music] o my father was saying to me in a letter never forget where you coming from tell the truth to the people and to
the world if you are not lying then as your father and your mother here in this Village we will be able to walk with our heads high up tell the truth to the people and to the world I was nervous very nervous this was a big [Music] moment but gorbachov was different gorbachov was the first boss from mosu who just showed his hand and we shook hands and that was all not a hog let alone a big kiss so these are minor things showing a lot on the personality and step by step it became a
very Lively discussion for for [Music] [Music] for there were knocking during our meeting calling for the end of the meeting because there is another one and he said yeah wait wait postpone it a bit because we are here discussing very important issues when we were flying back home from MOS I explained to my closest advisors look we have at least a silent supporter for our actions and programs in Moscow but rest assured in Prague Bucharest and especially in Berlin we have bigger and louder enemies [Applause] as soon as we started the work on the border
bar wire h smelt and felt the danger H assessed the decisions and actions as clear uh signs of uh undermining their power base B probably assessed his situation correctly my Minister for defense told them that we have been working on a more modern system of the Border controls it was to some extent a [Music] lie [Music] [Music] for yeah that's why by this time the party BOS and I had gone completely separate ways we hardly talked to each other and he was not pleased with what I had done to the Border why you why you
want to act against our friends in East Berlin that was his why I don't see why you sing Hungary and the and the country with the West Germans but the real showdown between him and me was over a dead man's [Music] [Music] body fore b b fore [Music] [Music] e one e one eat one [Music] [Music] is m n r gilon [Music] 196 [Music] for for [Music] [Music] by that time there was an official request from the family of IMR and representatives of the Civic Society to reur the victims of 56 [Applause] [Music] us [Music]
fore speee for spee for speech fore speee [Music] he felt isolated that probably pushed him even to play even dark ER and dirtier cards he was threatening me it was a quite clear threatening on his side that might be might be a killing might be a a uh uh yes it happens it happens it happens on the 16th of June of that year on the hero Square in Budapest we organized the reburial we set up a stage for five coffins for the heroes of the 56 Evolution more than 150 200,000 people crowded in the in
the square and uh we PID tribute the security person he put a special jacket under my shirt and he told me to make sure my head is always moving very slowly if you move your head and the body permanently there is no way even a professional will uh find your head it was quite a nervous [Music] day but as the ceremony went on I somehow felt more secure it was clear that times were changing [Music] [Music] [Music] 89 July we have the war soct Gathering and meeting in Bucharest ker in Berlin chesu Bucharest yakesh Prague
just to mention the three capitals and even in sopia we did not have a [Music] friend chesu the Romanian dictator proposed to discuss the developments and events in two countries namely in Poland and in Hungary which are undermining the proletarian internationalism of our Brotherhood the bulgarians the czechoslovak delegation and the East Germans supported the proposal because this is a type of disease even some of them use this word disease is they quite clearly suggested to gorbachov that use the weapons please against these two countries they were fighting for their real [Music] life I was sitting
like this next to the Russian Soviet delegation and gorbachov was blinking with his [Music] eyes take it easy take it easy that was the message by This Blink without gorbachov support there was nothing anybody could do to harm us [Music] we got the news from Moscow that there was a very heated discussion and it was very likely from one day to the other there is a quick flip topping gorbachov getting a hardliner and then again blood will be flowing in the streets of Eastern and Central Europe [Music] no one of us forecasted that during the
summer period we will have another hot potato in our hands namely the German Refugee problem I got the first news that uh interestingly uh after the two three weeks long holiday some of the gdr citizens decided to stay and it was clear to me that this is now very very serious for years we were obliged to pick up these Germans and send them on special airplanes organized by the infamous tazi to take them home in many cases to certain prison or severe harassment we couldn't keep doing that certainly not with a 100,000 people we had
to find a clear solution we could not keep them here and we could not send them back the only remaining option was the unsinkable one to somehow send them to the West but this was bound to provoke not only oner and his regime in East Germany but also the hardliners in Moscow so what to do what to do the paneuropean picnic was an exceptional event where a group of local activists from east and west had got our special permission just for a few hours to meet on the actual borderline under strict supervision they were allowed
to celebrate the old bonds between Austria and Hungary with plenty of goulash and lots of wine one part of the program was organized on the Hungarian side and the other part but the gates were open it was only allowed for the locals but somehow the East German refugees got wind of the they organized an escape not for all but at least for the bravest this was really a great opportunity for us to assess the Russians reaction to test the tolerance of the Soviet Union so we sent out an order to the Border troops please instruct
your guards if you see any East Germans On the Border let them pass do not intervene [Music] [Music] you we badly wanted the change we wanted to lead the country into a whole new era but the truth is that I had little control of what was going on in the country in key positions generals or Deputy ministers played their own cards some key persons supported me and and the government decision but there were some part of the organization who were able to intervene I don't know who instructed the paramilitary party organization to be part of
the border control for a couple of days they so to say helped the official Border guard uh in their exercises for [Applause] [Music] my problem was not just the East Germans themselves but what was going on in the Kremlin if they could put pressure on the Soviets then the hardliners in Moscow would maybe get more aggressive so I realized that my experiments on the border could easily provoke the downfall of [Music] gorbach we knew we forecasted that gorbachov will be toppled down by a coup death no one no one around me questioned that assessment the
question was when and by whom what if a new hardliner Landing up in mi serich seat brv never hesitated to use the military force for for speee [Music] are we H we have come fight her [Music] come got go go go what what good I I I both I I am for schner p one of the advisers quite clearly told me that look this is a very Risky Business now look uh I felt ashamed that it happened I felt ashamed myself I made the conclusion in a one sentence we are opening up at the end
of that meeting in my room on the 22nd I immediately called up our ambassador in Bor and instructed him to request an urgent meeting with Chancellor Cole and H dri gire we flew secretly by helicopters to gimik the bomb landed on their table con I will never forget his eyes Cole the big boy was close to tears [Music] since is [Music] he did not believe that probably because even on the same day he called up gorbachov and briefed him uh on the essence of our [Music] meeting that's a silent blessing from [Music] [Music] Moscow for
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] f [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Li [Music] [Applause] Comm [Applause] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] for [Applause] [Music]
