Orbán: Focus on Families to Solve Demographic Problems

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that his country will focus on Christian family values instead of relying on mass migration to mitigate problems with demographics.

At a meeting of the Bled Strategy Forum in Slovenia on Wednesday, Prime Minister Orbán said that the solution for population management should not be mass migration.

“What we need is not newcomers instead of our own people originally living here, because it’s just a mathematic approach. If we invite others from outside Europe that will change the cultural identity of Europe,” he said.

“There are some countries that accept it but Hungary is not among those countries. We would not like to change the cultural identity of our country so we don’t accept migration as a solution to demographic politics or demographic challenges.”

In 2019 Mr Orbán introduced a series of pro-family policies, including policies particularly targeted towards supporting motherhood.

Under the legislation, women were exempted from paying income tax for life if they raised four or more children. The government also introduced a loan scheme for women under the age of 40 who are getting married for the first time, with the cost of the loan will be entirely forgiven if the family raises three children.

Other policies include suspending and eventually forgiving the student debts of women as they have children, grandparental leave, and support to buy a family home and family car.

Mr Orbán also stressed the importance of allowing EU member-states to determine their own migration policies.

The national cosnervative leader said that Hungary was at the forefront of opposing actions taken by the European Union during 2015, as he believed mass migration from the Middle East would result in the destruction of the “cultural identity of Europe” as well as an increased threat of terrorism and “social difficulties”.

The prime minister also said that his country is particularly concerned with mass migration because those who are coming to Europe are “all Muslims”.

Orbán said that because Hungary was formerly occupied by Muslims in the 16th and 17th centuries — following the Ottoman Empire’s invasion of the country — the Hungarian people have historical knowledge about the detriments of Islamic ideology.

“Those who are coming are all Muslims and [they are] changing the composition of our continent and it’s a challenge to our cultural Christian heritage,” he said.