“Heading to Vote on New Asphalt Is Good” – PM Orban Opens Hungary’s New Motorway

Another milestone in nation-building has been reached: a new 34-kilometer stretch of the M4 motorway between Torokszentmiklos and Kisujszallas has been completed. According to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the investment not only makes transportation in eastern Hungary faster and safer, but also proves that the government has a Great Plain development program—one that keeps Hungarian tax money at home instead of sending it to Ukraine.

M4 Motorway opening, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban in center (Photo: MTI / Prime Minister’s Communications Office / Zoltan Fischer)

According to the prime minister, this is what the election is really about. “It’s clear that two paths lie before us. One is the Brussels path, which means our money is taken away. The other is that it stays in Hungary, and Hungary grows stronger—just as it has over the past 15 years,” he emphasized. Mr. Orban added that if the Kun people stand with them, they will win the election. 

On Monday morning, PM Orban had indicated in a social media post: “Another important moment in nation-building. This morning we head to the outskirts of Kenderes to inaugurate the brand-new, 34-kilometer section of the M4 expressway between Torokszentmiklos and Kisujszallas.”

With this opening, more than 150 kilometers of the M4 have now been completed between Budapest and the Jászság region.

According to a summary by Vilaggazdasag, the 34.29-kilometer project consists of three main elements:

• Expanding the Torokszentmiklos bypass to four lanes (8.1 km),
• Expanding the Kisujszalas bypass to four lanes (8.7 km),
• Building a new four-lane section between the two towns (17.5 km).

Traffic has already been using the completed right-hand carriageway of the Torokszentmiklos bypass for some time. Construction progressed so smoothly that the section—originally scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2026—was completed ahead of schedule, before Christmas.

Nation-Building Despite Headwinds

In his post, Orban wrote that 

what we commit to, we get done—step by step, even against headwinds.

He recalled that in 2010 Hungary had 1,273 kilometers of expressways, a figure that rose to nearly 2,000 kilometers by 2025.

As a result, 90 percent of Hungarians now live within a half-hour drive of a motorway,

he said.

PM Orban acknowledged that it has been a tough road, citing the financial crisis, the migration crisis, COVID, and now the war. “Just last week alone, we saved Hungary from a 400-billion-forint war levy by securing an exemption from the Brussels war loan,” he wrote.

The road section inaugurated today cost less than half of that amount—money that will also allow construction to continue as far as Berettyoujfalu.

Mr. Orban pledged that the work will go on, saying Hungarian money is better spent “on four-lane asphalt in the Great Plain of Hungary than blown to pieces in the Donbas or sunk into the gold-plated bathrooms of Ukrainian oligarchs.”

“That is our plan: peaceful nation-building instead of Brussels’ war plan,” Orban concluded.

Next in Store for the M4

Following the Kisujszallas opening, construction will continue with the Karcag bypass, and in the next cycle the motorway will be extended by 22 kilometers to Puspokladany. 

The Puspokladany–Berettyoujfalu section of the M4 is to be completed by 2032.

Contracts are already in place to begin work on the Karcag–Puspokladany section in the coming period, with construction expected to take three years, followed by the stretch between Puspokladany and Berettyoujfalu.

Cover photo: M4 Motorway opening, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban in center (Photo: MTI / Prime Minister’s Communications Office / Zoltan Fischer)