When Göncz takes the award to the hospital on Saturday afternoon, he kisses the Prime Minister lying in bed on the forehead. According to eyewitnesses, Antall's face crumples from this kiss. Imre Kónya's writing on Mandiner.

"Thirty years ago, on Sunday, December 12, 1993, József Antall died, whose prominent role in the creation of a free, independent, democratic Hungary is now recognized even by his former political opponents. It was around Friday night, when we last met, that he took note of the inevitable. In the previous days, he had convinced himself again and again that there was more.

I found out later that as soon as I left, he started making arrangements. Now he knows for sure that the end is coming soon.

And if that is the case, then he still has to arrange everything that no one else can arrange for him.

He wanted to fix his soul first.

He asked to find his former student, the papal prelate Pál Bolberitz. "I wanted a Christian Hungary," the prime minister said to his former student after he took the sacrament, "because believe me, only this has a future." Bolberitz thought - as he told me a few days later - that he did not need to convince him of this, and he told Antall this.

Therefore, at the funeral in Kossuth Square, and later every time he quoted their last conversation, he left out the "believe it" part.

After putting his mind in order, the Prime Minister asked the Chief of Staff of the National Guard, General Deák, National Police Chief Sándor Pintér and Colonel Sabjanics, the commander of the bodyguard. "Thank you for your service. Thank you for serving the country and democracy. I ask you to continue to do so,” he told them.

He phoned his opposition round table partners, Tölgyessy and Orbán, and personally said goodbye to his sister, niece, Edit Jeszenszky, her niece's husband, Géza Jeszenszky, and his closest colleagues. His wife and sons said goodbye to him on Sunday afternoon, his older son was by his side almost constantly in the last days.

The President of the Republic did not feel the need to visit the Prime Minister at his bedside. True, Antall did not claim this either.

On the other hand, he wanted Göncz to give him the Grand Cross of the Republic Medal before he died.

Many people wondered why a medal is important to a dying person. I wasn't surprised.

A memory came to mind. The Prime Minister invited me to the residence on a Sunday afternoon. During the conversation, he asked his son to take it out of the display case and show me the Grand Cross, which his father had received at the time, and which he had left to him as a legacy. Well, Antall didn't want the Grand Cross for himself. He wanted to leave it as an inheritance to his older son. He hoped that he would be the one from the family to carry on the idealism he represented.

When Boross informed him of the Prime Minister's wishes, Göncz initially refused to hear about it, but later gave in. When he takes the award to the hospital on Saturday afternoon, he kisses the Prime Minister, who is lying vulnerable in his bed, on the forehead. According to the unanimous statement of eyewitnesses, Antall's face contorts from this kiss. József Debreczeni is probably right when he writes in his book about the prime minister that at this moment

Antall probably felt what Jesus felt in the Garden of Gethsemane in the moments before his capture..."

The full article can be read HERE

Cover image: MTI