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Lady Thatcher and Central Europe

English Pages, 2. 10. 2025

I feel honoured to be here today and to have the opportunity to say a few words at this important gathering devoted to one of my heroes, Lady Thatcher. In fact, she is not “one of my heroes”. She is the hero. 

It is more than appropriate to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth and – and I am sure I speak for all of us – I thank John O’Sullivan, Melissa and the whole Danube Institute for organizing this event. As a consequence of your invitation, I was motivated to organize a similar event in my institute in Prague. 

I don’t intend to speculate on how Margaret Thatcher’s centennial will be celebrated in her own country, in a country that was so fundamentally, and in the eyes of many of us positively, changed by her leadership. I am sure many Brits will celebrate, but I have doubts about her own political party, which is going through difficult times, partly or mainly because of forgetting her legacy. I have even stronger doubts about the current Labour government. Perhaps I underestimate British good manners and innate politeness. 

We, in the communist Czechoslovakia, saw Lady Thatcher as a hero who succeeded in returning Great Britain to capitalism, who resolutely defended the main conservative ideas – free markets, free trade, and unrestricted political freedom, who succeeded in winning important political battles, first of all the miners’ strike, who opposed communism and socialism in all their forms and disguises, and who – together with Ronald Reagan – with her resolute stance towards Soviet communism significantly contributed to its fall. 

Until our Velvet Revolution, we had a chance to follow Margaret Thatcher’s activities only from a distance. I visited Great Britain for the first time as late as in 1990 as Minister of Finance of the newly free Czechoslovakia to sign a double-taxation avoidance treaty between our two countries (with Norman Lamont – whom I still occasionally meet). 

Until that moment, Margaret Thatcher had been for us an untouchable, very distant personality. I couldn’t even imagine getting a chance to meet her once in my life. Even without having any possibility to visit her country, we saw her as someone who had changed the world and the course of history. We admired her views, stances and policies. We considered the leading continental politicians – who believed in the beauty of the so-called Helsinki process – as implicit fellow travellers of socialism and communism. We were convinced that only the sharp political stances of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher could help us to make a real change to our lives. 

As an economist and as a true believer in Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman, I was very much in favour of Margaret Thatcher’s policies and regarded her as a role model. In the final days of the already tired, non-functioning, weak and soft communist era in my country (and in the whole of Central and Eastern Europe) she became a symbol of the hopeful future. Both before and after the fall of communism, she was seen as someone who spoke to us and understood us more than other Western leaders and politicians. What we considered important was that she listened to us. She consistently opposed all kinds of “third ways” and that was exactly what we were trying to do at that time. We wanted the “first way”, and that was capitalism. From that time comes my even now quoted statement, which I made in Davos in January 1990, that the third way is the fastest way to the Third World. 

It should also be mentioned that even in the Communist days, we had strong doubts about the project of the European integration, about the very problematic shifts undergoing in the European Community. It began moving from economic integration to political unification. This process was later institutionalized in the Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties. That was not our ambition. Even at that time, we understood the importance of her Bruges Speech (in 1988) and were disappointed that it did not get the support it deserved in Western Europe. To our great regret, the West Europeans did not want to see the incoming dangers. 

She was the only Western leader who raised doubts about the one-sided, entirely positive reaction of Western Europe and the whole West to the German unification, which fundamentally increased the strength and role of Germany in European affairs. Margaret Thatcher understood it very clearly. We, the Czechs, with our centuries-long historical experience with that neighbour of ours, had similar concerns. 

I had the opportunity to meet Margaret Thatcher many times and was extremely honoured when she called me once her “best pupil” in the newly free countries of Central and Eastern Europe. I was indeed her true supporter and follower. 

I met her both officially and privately many times. She made an official visit to Prague in September 1990, and we understood each other very rapidly. In my domestic political conflict with Václav Havel, who in reality did not want capitalism, free markets and genuine political parties, she stood resolutely on my side. She told him so explicitly in my presence. 

Her exit from politics was anything but voluntary. I was shocked seeing her sudden political fall in November 1990. It was the consequence of the very fragile state of affairs in the British Conservative Party at that time, especially as regards the European project. Many leading conservatives wrongly believed in the beauties of European unification and of the suppression of nation states. Her fall was a great loss for all of us, and I am sure for Great Britain even more. 

I don’t possess a detailed list of all our meetings. But being here in Budapest, I can’t forget sitting next to her for several hours at the funeral of JózsefAntall, the first post-communist Prime Minister of Hungary, on a chilly December day in front of the Hungarian Parliament. I can’t forget mentioning the unveiling of Winston Churchill’s statue in Prague, in front of my alma mater, not in chilly, but freezing weather. I remember a strong speech she made when awarding me the honorary Doctor of Science at “her” University of Buckingham, where she served as Chancellor at that time. I recall the special roles we together played at conferences in Venice, Italy, and Beaver Creek, Colorado. 

I will never forget our conversation in a Washington hotel when we both came to attend the funeral of Ronald Reagan. We had a long debate whether she should speak in the Washington cathedral live or just use the pre-recorded video next morning. (I must confess that she did not believe in her ability to speak live, something I contested.) We all know that she very carefully organized her own funeral, and I took it as an expression of friendship and mutual understanding when she seated me in the first row of the St. Paul’s Cathedral, next to Henry Kissinger. 

I did not check any official records. I am sure I have forgotten several important moments, but I always say that only what stays in our minds is relevant and worth mentioning. 

Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is alive and will stay with us on condition we will keep it alive. Much to my regret, today’s political reality, the current intellectual climate, as well as the public mood have moved very far from her views and her era. Both in my own country and in the whole of Europe. 

We need another Bruges speech. I tried to make something similar once in the European Parliament, Viktor Orbán is courageously doing it again and again these days, the newly constituted Patriots for Europe promise a similar approach. I am, however, afraid we are slowly but steadily moving into the Brave New World, the world which Margaret Thatcher so successfully opposed during her life and political career. We would need her now. 

Václav Klaus, “Margaret Thatcher: A Life & Legacy”, Danube Institute, Lónyay-Hatvany Villa, Budapest,October 2, 2025.