I respectfully greet you all. Good morning.
Everyone is speaking, except for two people. One of them bears all the responsibility, because he built the road – so if there are any problems, please remember that. János Lázár not only builds roads, but he is also the greatest road repairer, as Strabag could tell you at length. And here with us we also have Sándor Fazekas, who, as minister, insisted that this road be included in the national road construction plan. It was a long time ago, so perhaps you do not remember it, but I remember that it was Sándor who looked at the proposal featuring the national road development plan – Sándor, when was that? In 2010? In 2012? He said, “Okay, but what about us?” Because this wasn’t marked there; everything else seemed more important, since at that time the most important thing was reaching the country’s borders, the M3, and so on. So we owe special thanks to Sándor, our then Minister of Agriculture, for always insisting that this road should never be taken off the agenda. What is more, from him I learned the wisdom that a good election is when people go to vote on streaming, freshly laid asphalt. “But Sándor”, I said, “there isn’t enough asphalt for all the mandates we need”. This piece of wisdom has been associated with Sándor ever since. And in truth it is good that we have finally finished this road, because in recent times you have given us every mandate. I would like to thank you for this. In fact this is true not only here, in this region, but also all the way down to the border, and up to Pest. This is pretty much how it should be. This is what we need now too.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have come together to fulfil a promise. We undertook to build an expressway – indeed several – in Nagykunság, and today we are handing over the section between Törökszentmiklós and Kisújszállás. I say that we are fulfilling a promise, but of course the truth is that we did not really have much choice. People learn history in school, and there they learn that it is not a good idea to mess with the Kun people; so in reality this road had to be built – whether we wanted to or not. The Kun people are strongly represented in the Hungarian government, with all kinds of ministers, and they also provide the Governor of the Central Bank, so there has been peace in that area ever since – and indeed our last regent came from here, from Kenderes. And from time to time you even grant us a Nobel Prize winner. This region is a great and rich reserve for Hungary.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We – Fidesz–KDNP – are the only political community that has a programme for the Great Plain. This is partly because the minister responsible for transport is from Hódmezővásárhely, and partly because on my mother’s side my own roots are in Mezőtúr – and my wife is from Szolnok. So, whatever the reason, we have a Great Plain programme. In 2010 unemployment in this region was 12 per cent, and now it is 5 per cent. Under the Sándor Demján Programme, 4.5 billion forints went to businesses in Jász–Nagykun–Szolnok County. We have completely renovated the hospital in Karcag, and have also built a fantastic leisure centre. These were the smaller tasks. The really big expense was actually the two roads, because we are not just talking about one; although we are here today because of the M4, the M44 is also very important, as otherwise this central part of the Great Plain would have remained an isolated area. And there are still sixty kilometres of road left to build: from Kisújszállás the missing section is about sixty kilometres long. That will also be built, but now we will do it under a concession construction agreement.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Where there are roads, there are trucks and lorries. Of course everyone likes to pay less, so if possible, they avoid four-lane highways and motorways. This is why we have decided that, from 1 January 2026, trucks weighing more than twenty tonnes arriving in Hungary and passing through the country will only be allowed to use motorways. To this the right reply has been, “well, if there are any”; but now there are, and there are conditions attached. Over the past fifteen years, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have built so many motorways and major roads that the Hungarian road network has reached the level of the most developed Western European countries – calculated on a per capita basis, of course. In 2010 the length of expressways in Hungary was 1,273 kilometres, and by 2025 it has been brought up to exactly 2,000 kilometres with this 35 kilometres ahead of us. In addition, we have built a total of eight bridges over the Danube and the Tisza, and now twenty-two cities with county rights are accessible by expressways. All in all, this means that 90 per cent of the Hungarian population lives within a half-hour drive of a motorway. And if we can complete all our investments, this figure will rise to one hundred, and the travel time will be reduced from thirty minutes to twenty.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As my fellow Member of Parliament Kovács mentioned, once we reach Berettyóújfalu it will be possible to drive directly onto the expressways leading to Nagyvárad/Oradea and Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca – assuming that the Romanians on the other side also complete the necessary work. This means that, even according to the most conservative estimates, the distance between Budapest and Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca will be shortened by sixty or ninety minutes. Today is an important moment for national unification. What is more, Ladies and Gentlemen, we also have serious plans for the southern part of Eastern Hungary. If you look at the map, you will see that Eastern Hungary does not exist as such, because it actually consists of two parts: a northern part and a southern part. We have made quite good progress in the northern part. If you visit the Debrecen and Nyíregyháza areas, you will see that industrial investments and developments have taken place there. And, slowly but surely, something we would never have thought possible will happen: people will be coming from Sopron to work in Nyíregyháza. We still have to wait a while, but then movement in the other direction will begin: not only will people go from the east to the west to work, but the reverse will also happen. And now that the roads are being built here, we can expect – and we will certainly work to ensure – that large industrial investments will be made here, opening up similar development prospects to those seen in the northern part of the Great Plain. The plan is to create an industrial region here, which we call Debrecen–Nagyszalonta/Salonta–Békéscsaba: a large cross-border economic area. This is why we will also build our four-lane Békéscsaba–Debrecen motorway, which is already in the planning stage.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Furthermore, from history everyone knows that the Nagykunság and Karcag regions, Törökszentmiklós, Kisújszállás and Szolnok also played an important role when the Carpathian Basin was still one, when it formed an organic whole, when the Hungary of Saint Stephen still existed, when one of old Hungary’s most important trade routes ran through here.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Road construction requires money. We will have money if we do not allow it to be taken away from us. I mention this to you because I have just returned from Brussels, where a little Pac-Man called Ukraine is attempting to gobble up all of the funds. And the clever Brusselite gentlemen have decided to give Ukraine a loan of 90 billion euros – obviously in the hope that they will get it back with a hefty amount of interest. I said yesterday, or maybe in Szeged, that the Ukrainians’ chances of repaying these loans are about the same as the Tisza Party’s chances of winning the election. We only managed to stay out of this insane Brussels idea after a fierce battle, but if we had not been able to stay out of it, then our share of this loan would have been 400 billion forints. Four hundred billion forints! The section of road we are now handing over is worth 170 billion forints, and the stretch ahead of us will be roughly the same amount. Thus we would have had to hand over to Brussels an amount that is essentially the total construction cost of this motorway.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The fact is that the money is better spent here, in the form of a modern road in the Great Plain, than in war-torn Donbas, in the pocket of some Ukrainian oligarch. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is what is at stake in next year’s election. Speaking of roads and which road we will take, we live in a democracy, Hungarians can decide this, and it’s right that from time to time – every four years – they decide which direction we should go in. It is clear that there are two paths before us. We can take the Brussels path, which means that our money will be taken from here and sent somewhere else, used somewhere else, and someone else will benefit from it. Our other option is for it to stay here in Hungary, to stay on the Hungarian path, and continue as we have done for the past fifteen years. Then Hungary will develop, then Hungary will grow, and then Hungary will become stronger. Of course, this requires that we retain all the mandates that have come from this region over the past four years. So I would like to ask you to get ready and, if you would be so kind, extend the mandates of our representatives; because without Nagykunság – and, more broadly, the Great Plain – there can be no national government in Hungary. If the Kun people are with us, if Nagykunság is with us, if the Hungarian Great Plain is with us, then whatever happens in Budapest, we will win this election. To this end, I ask for your trust and support.
Looking ahead to the years ahead, I wish you all – each and every one of you – good health and strength from God, a happy family, an understanding partner, the abundant blessing of children, good neighbours, and work that is useful, meaningful and productive.
I wish you all a Blessed, Peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year.