The four-lane road was one of the “two debts the government owed to Pápa”, Orbán said.

The first, the “issue of the hospital”, had been tackled, and the road connecting the city with the north-west of the country was now also completed, he said. The major road artery will have an important role in economic development, in improving locals’ quality of life, and in the military airport there, he said.

He said that while wars and crises were taking place in other countries, “Hungary is building itself up”. “Steering a ship is easy enough in calm and clear waters … but we have fallen on hard, terrible times and entered an era of dangers…” he said.

“We should be proud to know that our country is on the right track in these bloody times, and we are even able to solve decades-long problems in times blighted by high inflation and interest rates.”

The development of Highway 83 was “a debt owed to Hungary’s rural communities”, Orbán said. “The nation and the government expects two things from rural Hungary: strong local communities — because we can’t succeed without them — and that they shouldn’t lose their individual characteristics; that they remain the way we know and love them.”

Boosting progress while retaining “good things” was not an easy task, Orbán said. Communities forging ahead must remain a part of the “nation’s bloodstream”, he said.

A good network of roads “keeps the country on the road to progress”, and the country’s motorway network is denser than that of France, Ireland or the Scandinavian countries, he said.

“A country that is able to expand its road network in such difficult times is one that will be able to perform well in such times, too,” he said.