Good evening.
When I was asked to speak here I had my reservations, wondering whether it was the right decision. And when I accepted the invitation I wasn’t sure myself whether my answer was correct, given that I knew Imre Makovecz from a perspective that is different from that of most of you here. And when one talks about Makovecz, there is only one rule to follow: you have to say what you think. In my profession, this usually causes problems. Anyway, here I am now.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Makovecz Family,
Without Imre Makovecz, I would not be standing here today. Without Imre Makovecz, in 1998 we would not have been able to halt the communist restoration. Without Imre Makovecz, there would have been no civic circles, and we would not have been able to get back on our feet after the 2002 election defeat. Without Imre Makovecz, there would have been no two-thirds election victory in 2010, and no constitutional revolution. Without Imre Makovecz, we would not have a Christian and national constitution. And without Imre Makovecz, I could not have been Prime Minister of Hungary in 1998 or 2010. That is the stark truth. What else can I say, but “Thank you!”
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is difficult to decide whether God’s decision to allow Moses to only see the Promised Land but not to enter it was a punishment or a mercy: after a long journey, arrival, victory over torments, and the certainty that it all had meaning, that it really did make sense, yet being unable to participate in the new life – that certainly seems like punishment. But it is also true that after the heady days of victory comes mundane everyday life. In the days of victory, we celebrate greatness, the radiance of our better selves. But then everyday life returns, and with it our depressing weaknesses and painful frailties. To be left out of that, to finish at the peak – from that perspective, it is more of a blessing. A photograph will always show the frozen image of a world-class high jumper defying the laws of physics and clearing the bar. Fantastic! But despite all our admiration, we also know that it is impossible to stay above the bar forever. Imre Makovecz, like the Moses of the Hungarians, was given only one year. He was able to catch a brief glimpse of the new world that replaced a total of sixty-five years of communism and post-communism. He only drew one breath of the free air of the civic, national and Christian era that continues to this day. But he knew exactly what was happening and what was going to happen. He knew that what was coming was not four years, but a long era in which Hungarians would be able to find themselves individually and as a people. He hardly thought it would be a perfect world, if such a thing even exists; but he knew that it was the end of the era of a sky that had been boarded over. It was the arrival of what he had always longed for, of what would bring out the best in Hungarians. And the moment had arrived for the sky emerging from behind the boards to be connected with the earth. “Beneath you the earth; above you the sky; within you the ladder.” In fact, not only within you, but within us as well. He was the living embodiment of Sándor Weöres’s poem – he himself and his buildings. From the earth to the sky. The foot of the ladder stands on Hungarian soil, its top rung leaning against the heavenly throne. The arches, the roofs rising like birds’ wings, the light spanning the spaces all say the same thing: “You only live rightly if you always strive upwards, if you lift your soul against the force of gravity which pulls you down to earth. Sursum corda! [Lift up your hearts!]” And when we recall his words, when we stand still in front of his buildings, it happens: we truly feel uplifted.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I believe there is a point in architecture where engineering knowledge ends and something else begins. Fortunately this is true, because if it were not so, only architects would be able to contribute to debates about the built world. Fortunately the engineering debate ends, and when you see the building in front of you, you understand the dramatic tension between the depths of the earth and the dome of the sky, between transience and eternity, which creates the vision that the architect presents to you as a building. I have always seen Imre Makovecz as standing on this borderline throughout his life. He himself must have thought so, because he said, “The Creator created the world; I am just trying to listen to it.” Imre Makovecz, Ladies and Gentlemen, left us not a worldview, but a way of perceiving the world. This is ancient knowledge. Space is never neutral: it either lifts you up or crushes you; it either breathes with us or works against us. I never saw Imre Makovecz’s oeuvre as a kind of architectural accomplishment – for me, his body of work is more of a proposal for Hungarian civilisation: this is how we can live – so airy, so translucent, so courageous, so focused on the essentials. And even here on Earth, to again that which is eternal.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On Sunday night, after the lost match, when an entire stadium – and perhaps half the country – died at once, I thought of my brother Imre. Imre Makovecz taught me that a nation is built not only on victory, but also on the courage to rebuild after defeat. And indeed, when Hungarians lose a battle, they can only respond in one way: we will win the war – just as we fought back in 1998 after the Antall government lost the battle, and just as our defeat in 2002 was answered with a two-thirds victory in 2010. In May 2006, after our second consecutive defeat, he wrote me a letter. It was instructive: “You are the leader of a Hungarian people that has not yet been sufficiently destroyed, and that is why they hate you. Foreign attacks can be repelled with courageous, calm and worthy people.” We took his advice, and that is why we are still here today.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
And finally, I would like to mention the story of the 2010 Marczibányi Square conference. We had to bring together the leaders of the Hungarian economy: bankers, CEOs, owners of capital and multinational executives. You may remember that this was the moment when we involved banks and multinational companies in public burden sharing. Silence. A hostile atmosphere. Murderous stares. I announced the bank tax, the multinational tax, and other horrors. Alone on stage, with everyone against you. It occurred to me: “If you want to be a piper, you must brave the fires of hell.” I finished. No applause, no greetings, no gestures. I felt like the unfortunate man whom the Supreme Ayatollah of Iran had declared to be the evil of the world. And then, from beyond the rows of seats, standing by the curtain, someone shouted in a calm, resonant, disciplined, declarative voice – a voice that brooked no contradiction: “Long live Viktor Orbán!” He shouted this three times into the cloud of hatred that was swirling there. No one knows how he got there, even now.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
From him I also learned that Hungarians are an Eastern people; so if they do not have a leader, they will devour one another. I also learned from him that things will not work without a leader. He was right. This is not because Hungarians are sheep – that is just a liberal fairy tale. On the contrary: it is because Hungarians are strong. And strong people must be kept together, because if there is no order and no discipline, they will turn on one another. He passed away fourteen years ago. If he could see us here today, his heart would rejoice. He would see that he was right: we are not a people who back down.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Makovecz Family,
I also saw how he died, how he left this world. When I received the ominous news that he was gravely ill, I went to see him. He let me in. Quite something: he let me in. I said to him, “Master, what’s the situation?” His reply: “What do you mean? I’m going to die. They can’t help me with this illness.” I asked, “Treatment, medication, clinics, science, America?” To which he replied, “Nothing can be done. And I don’t want to die according to the pharmaceutical companies’ script.” In our Hungarian world, death and talking about death are taboo. I do not know if it is good or easier that way, but that is how it is. It was not taboo for him. This was not either. No pathos. No complaints. Just the stark facts. Just translucent clarity. Just Makovecz. He lived according to his own agenda, and died according to his own will. Even in death, he remained free. And I am sure that he reached the top of the ladder in good time.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Makovecz Family,
Hungary and the Hungarian future were saved after 1990 by an intellectual conspiracy organised by Imre Makovecz. It was an open conspiracy there on Kecske Street, so it could neither be eliminated nor dealt with. It was an open conspiracy of the greatest living Hungarians, who believed in intellectual excellence, the immortality of the spirit, and service to the homeland above all else. This is the great legacy that the generation before us has left us. I could go on and on listing names – from György Fekete to Anna Jókai, Magda Szabó and István Nemeskürty. We cannot know what times are coming. On Sunday, we saw how little it takes for our fate to turn to the right or to the left. One thing is certain. In the future we will not be able to remain standing without the open conspiracy of the unyielding Hungarians.
Glory to Imre Makovecz!
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