New motorway stretch opened today in Hungary – video, photo gallery

A new section of motorway was opened on Monday morning on the outskirts of Kenderes, with the unveiling of a 34-kilometre stretch of the M4 motorway between Törökszentmiklós and Kisújszállás. The development marks a major milestone in Hungary’s infrastructure programme, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on his Facebook page.

New motorway section opened

The Prime Minister said: “What we promised, we will deliver – step by step, even against the fiercest headwinds.” He noted that in 2010 Hungary’s expressway network totalled just 1,273 kilometres, while by 2025 it will have expanded to nearly 2,000 kilometres.

As a result of these developments, around 90 per cent of Hungarians now live within a 30-minute drive of a motorway, which he described as a major breakthrough.

“It was a hard slog,” the Prime Minister said. “We fought our way through the financial crisis, the migrant crisis, COVID, and now we are facing the consequences of the war.”

Hungarian taxes will not be sent to Brussels

He added that just last week the government saved Hungary 400 billion forints in war-related expenditure by securing an exemption from Brussels’ military loan schemes.

According to Mr Orbán, the newly opened motorway section cost less than half of that amount, which he said would make it possible to continue construction as far as Berettyóújfalu.

“And we will keep going,” he said. “Hungarian taxpayers’ money is far better spent on the Great Plain, building four-lane roads, than being blown apart in the Donbas or lining the gilded bathrooms of Ukrainian oligarchs. Our plan is peaceful nation-building, not participation in Brussels’ war machine.”

Money in a better place in the motorway than in the Donbas

“We deliver on our promises step by step, even against headwinds,” Orbán said. The total length of motorways in Hungary has increased to almost 2,000km by 2025 from 1,273km in 2010, he said. This means 90 percent of Hungarians now live within a half-hour drive from a motorway, he added.

“It has been tough,” the prime minister said. “We have dealt with the financial and migration crises, Covid, and now we are dealing with the war.” Orbán said that last week alone, the government had saved Hungary from “400 billion forints in war reparations” by obtaining an exemption from “the Brussels war loan”.

The prime minister said the motorway section inaugurated on Monday had cost less than half of this sum, allowing for the motorway construction to continue to Berettyóújfalu, in the east. “And it will continue,” Orbán said. “Because Hungarians’ money is in a better place in the asphalt of a four-lane road in the Great Plain than shot up in the Donbas or in the gilded bathrooms of Ukrainian oligarchs. This is our plan: peaceful nation-building instead of destruction under Brussels’s war plan.”

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