Speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the opening of the final section of the M85 expressway

Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I started the week in America, and I am finishing it here in Sopron. "All's well that ends well" - or, for the pessimists, "If all's not well, it's not the end yet."

Mr. Mayor, Your Excellency, Honourable Members of Parliament, Dear Citizens of Sopron,

It is exactly three years to the day since we last met, to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the referendum held on this day in 1921, when Sopron and the surrounding villages showed what it means to be loyal to the nation. Your forefathers also showed that we must not resign ourselves to the fate that foreign powers seek to impose on us. Glory to the city of Sopron! Sopron and its surroundings remained in the motherland, but the great powers separated Hungarians from one another with the state borders that they imposed on us. It shows the strength of the Hungarian people and their confidence in the future that 103 years later we are still here, a nation living on this land. In fact, after the First World War, our enemies decided that Hungarians should be small and poor. We never accepted this fate. We have always wanted Hungary to be a great and rich country, worthy of its old great reputation: if we lose the war, we will win the peace; every match will last until we win it.

Dear People of Sopron and its surroundings,

The events of a century ago also provide a larger historical lesson. We Hungarians have always been caught when we have been pushed to a boundary between civilisations. We were the losers when the border between Christian and Islamic civilisations was drawn on the territory of our country, when centuries of warfare consumed Hungarian life and the country's economic strength was lost. We were also losers in the Cold War, when we were forcibly separated from Europe. Sopron itself was also a loser in that era. The city experienced the most difficult period in its history when the Iron Curtain was erected a few kilometres away, thus multiplying all the tragedies of Trianon. Sopron could only develop when it was connected to the world around it. Even the first settlement on the site of the present town owed its existence to a road: the Amber Road, built by the Romans. Sopron was a special staging post on that road. This area - your area - connects not only North and South, but also East and West, and it is here that we cross from the Carpathian Basin to the foothills of the Alps.

Dear Friends,

What is true for Sopron is also true for Hungary. It can only develop if it is able to take advantage of its favourable geographical position, if instead of isolating itself it connects itself with the world around it. For this we need lively political and economic relations, and we also need physical links: airports, railways, bridges and motorways.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is the mission of the national government to put an end to the fragmentation of past centuries. We are determined to make a centre out of what in the Cold War was a periphery. We will put Hungary on the map - not just anywhere, but where it belongs: at the centre of Europe. Over the past fifteen years we have spent 4.2 trillion forints on road developments, with 870 kilometres of motorways and expressways being built and extended since 2010. Today twenty-one cities with county rights have access to dual-carriageways, and next year this number will rise to twenty-two, as Békéscsaba is already preparing for the handover of a similar road. Ten motorways in Hungary - including the M85 - now reach our borders, compared to only three in 2010. With the final section of the M85, a direct link has been established between the Austrian border and the entire Hungarian motorway system. This week we managed to bring the Romanians inside the Schengen Area, thus eliminating the Romanian-Hungarian border; and today's handover of this road can be seen as a link between Hungarians in Burgenland and Hungarians in Transylvania. Moreover, Dear Citizens of Sopron, we have been able to do all this on our own: the designers and builders of the completed road are Hungarian. All that is missing is for the motorway on the side owned by our brothers-in-law to reach the border - but the road on the other side of the border has not yet been built. We will not engage in an analysis of Austrian domestic politics, but we hope for changes there too.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Next year the Kecskemét link between the M44 expressway and the motorway will be completed. The first stage of the M49 and the new section of the M4 are also in preparation. Today ten four-lane motorways reach the border, and this number will rise to nineteen within ten years. Next year we will launch more than 300 projects worth around 8.1 trillion forints. As a result of all this, we will finally achieve our goal: Hungary will become a true interconnection node, a trade and distribution hub in Europe.

Dear Friends,

In 2025 our plan is to disperse the clouds of war and for the sun to finally shine again. We expect and hope that 2025 will be a fantastic year for the Hungarian economy, and we are working to make it one. Production will also start at the BMW and CATL plants in Debrecen, as well as at BYD in Szeged. The Sándor Demján Programme will be launched, with 1.4 trillion forints for Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises, and there will be 2.6 trillion forints in support for families. And wages will also rise: in the next three years Hungary will see an unprecedented increase in the minimum wage. This is something we can do with! All of us can take not one step forward, but two steps forward. For those who doubt this, let this road be the proof. We made the commitment, we took the plunge, and we did it.

All that is left for me to do is to hand over to you this new section of the M85 and to thank everyone who has contributed to its construction. We thank you! To you, your families and your children at home, I wish you a peaceful and happy Christmas, good health and memorable successes in the New Year. God bless us all!

God above us all, Hungary before all else! Go Hungary, go, Hungarians!