10 January 2013, Felsőszölnök

Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen!

It is with special respect that I greet Madam Prime Minister of Slovenia. It is a great honour for all of us that she has undertaken to travel from Budapest to be here at the inauguration of this road. It is with respect that I thank Madam Prime Minister for having listed the measures with which we Hungarians do our best to please the Slovenian minority who live here with us so that they may feel equal and feel good about themselves and in their own homeland. It is only proper that I congratulate Slovenia's Prime Minister on the successful efforts she is making to put her own country's financial system in order and to once again establish a strong Slovenian economy. I would also like to thank Madam Prime Minister in the name of all of us for showing concern for the fate of the Hungarian community in Slovenia and for having always done everything possible to enable them to also feel at home. Before saying a few words about this famous highway, please allow me to also tell you a little about issues relating to Slovenian-Hungarian trans-border cooperation. It is currently possible to travel by road between Hungary and Slovenia at eight points, which equates to a density of one every 12.5 kilometres. In Western Europe, this figure is usually 2-4 kilometres, and so it was high time for us to come to an agreement with the Prime Minister of Slovenia about establishing a further six border crossing points by 2020. And now please allow me to also say a few words about this road. I have been Prime Minister for eight years now, but we have never worked as much in connection with a road as we have with this one. The Hungarian Government has spent more time discussing this road at its cabinet meetings than with a motorway. It is of course an achievement in itself that this road has been completed, but I would like to tell the Hungarians present here today that this also represents a victory over our own weaknesses. This road has only been completed because we Hungarians have managed to free ourselves of all of our bad characteristics. Just so you understand what I mean, the need for the construction of this road was first mentioned one hundred years ago, planning began 11 years ago, the foundation stone was laid in 2007 - and it is now 2014. Someone at a cabinet meeting said that people also call this prayer road, probably because the locals used it to go to church, and so nomen est omen: we laid down the foundation stone and nothing happened; we have been praying for its completion ever since. We encountered hard-headed bureaucrats, unviable technical regulations and misinterpreted environmental protection criteria, and it is characteristic of us, the Hungarians, that we are inaugurating this road today according to regulations and you will be using it legally, but there are still legal procedures ongoing against its construction. So let us be thankful that we have overcome our penchant for procrastination and are able to inaugurate this new road here today. I ask the locals to forgive us for this dallying, this lack of inertia and loss of time, and let us now be glad that we are over all of these and the road is complete.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Hungarian Government of course owed the people living here the construction of this road, and this is especially true because I took a look at the 2010 election results, where I saw that you trusted in us, or you certainly trusted in us strongly in 2010, because 80% of the people of Felsőszölnök gave us their vote of confidence, and 66% of the people of Kétvölgy. This is not about politics, but about trust, and it is the job of leaders to reciprocate the trust invested in them, and so it is with respect that I announce to the local residents that we have completed this road. Use it in good health!

Go Hungary! Go Hungarians!

(Prime Minister’s Office)