Hungarian Prime
Minister Viktor Orbán has addressed the 2nd Budapest World Congress
of Families on May 25. Here
is the part of his speech related to his Governments family policies and, below, the statement of Ms Katalin Novák Minister of State for Family.
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| PM Orbán at the Budapest World Congress of Families / Budapest Family Summit (Photo: Árvai Károly/kormany.hu) |
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
In Europe today we
are witnessing the fiercest struggle between competing visions of the future.
The starting point of this debate is that while there are more and more people
surrounding us, in Europe our population is on the decline. The time for
straight talking has come. Europe, our common homeland, is losing out in the
population competition between great civilisations. Fewer and fewer marriages
are producing fewer and fewer children, and the population is therefore ageing
and declining. In Europe today there are two distinct views on this. One of
these is held by those who want to address Europe’s demographic problems
through immigration. And there is another view, held by Central Europe – and,
within it, Hungary. Our view is that we must solve our demographic problems by
relying on our own resources and mobilising our own reserves, and – let us
acknowledge it – by renewing ourselves spiritually. (…)
The family is at the
centre of the Hungarian government’s vision of the future. The motto of this
conference is “Making Families Strong Again”. And this is right, because strong
families will create a strong, competitive society and economy, a strong and competitive
Hungary and Europe. When I was young – and it’s true that I grew up in a
village – people used to ask how many children one had like this: “How many
families do you have?” This question reflected the notion that in every child
they saw the seed of a new family. Our goal, too, is to have as many children
in Hungary as possible; because if there are children, there is a future.
I must tell you that
our country, Hungary, also shares Europe’s problem of population decline. We,
too, are doing poorly. We, too, must turn things around to reach the ideal
state in which we are able to reproduce ourselves. Here I will quote a few
figures for you. In 1980 10,709,000 people lived in Hungary. In 2017 that
figure was 9,799,000 – meaning that in less than 40 years we have lost almost a
million people in Hungary. I can tell our guests from abroad that this is more
than all the casualties we sustained in World War II. So for some time the
figures have shown us that we need a decisive turnaround in Hungary – and across
the whole of Europe.
When the captain of a
vast ocean liner wants to turn it around, he may turn the wheel in vain: the
ship will not turn immediately, but will only slowly adopt a new course. As
Prime Minister, I believe that this is just how it is with a turnaround in
population and family policy. The most important thing is to designate our
destination and adjust the wheel accordingly. It is important to highlight that
the restoration of natural reproduction is a national cause; and it is not just
one national cause among many, but the
national cause. And it is also a European cause: not just one European cause
among many, but the European cause.
The goal of the Government of Hungary is to raise our birth rate to 2.1 per cent
by 2030, which would be a replacement rate for our society. At present this
figure stands at 1.5 per cent.
In other words,
Ladies and Gentlemen, in order to achieve a turnaround in population we first
need to properly set the steering wheel on a fixed course. We must raise our
birth rate to 2.1 per cent by 2030. It is not enough to just set out on the
right course, however: we must also keep to that course – in particular when it
comes to family policy and demography. We must pursue the course for decades.
We must pursue the course over several government terms. This is the first
precondition for a turnaround in population.
The second
precondition for the turnaround is a powerful engine. One of the experiences of
my thirty years in politics is that a major political, social and intellectual
turnaround always requires financial resources, and we need a competitive model
that is full of energy. If these things are not behind our goals – no matter
how well-defined and morally right those goals may be – in modern politics the
people will not give us a chance to implement that turnaround. As far as we
Hungarians are concerned, I can tell you that here economic growth is in a
range between three and five per cent. this is the magical GDP growth.
Government debt is declining and unemployment is coming to an end. Because our
economic policy has been successful, the next target of our general and
economic policy is to promote the number of children being born. It is to this
that we’ve adjusted our fiscal system, it is to this that we’ve adjusted our
housing support system; and our work-based economic system – with which we
shall soon reach full employment – also serves this purpose.
The third thing that
is required for a population turnaround, Ladies and Gentlemen, is that the
ship’s hull be in good shape. You should not forget that in Europe today there
are a number of high-performing countries with enviable living standards, but
which, in spite of their outstanding economic figures, are struggling with
severe demographic problems. In Hungary we spend 4.6 per cent of GDP on family
support. If as a unit of community the family does not occupy first place in
the hearts of young people, however, economic strength and excellent national
economy figures are in vain: we cannot achieve anything.
We who live here in
Central Europe can still consider ourselves lucky. Marriage and family still
constitute the core values in the lives of the majority of young people in
Central Europe. If we ask them how they envisage their future, we find that
they value marriage more than cohabitation, and would like to raise two or
three children. Yet when it comes to the realisation of plans, we can see that
for some reason some of the children once planned for are never born. On this
basis, in Hungary we have come to the conclusion that we must pursue a policy
which removes obstacles from the path of young people. The more we support our
families, the more children will be born. With little support, only a few more
children; with more support, many more children. We have arrived at this simple
truth.
The Hungarian
government, the Government of the Christian Democrats and Fidesz, has therefore
decided that 2018 will be the Year of Families. Our new action plan – which is
so fresh that the ink is still not dry on it, as we adopted it at yesterday’s
Cabinet meeting – is not the first of its kind, nor the last. I sincerely hope
that it will have an impact not only on Hungary, but, as a good example, also
on the entire region.
We’ve decided to further
raise the rates of family tax allowances, and to place families with two
children at the centre of this, as they represent the largest section in
Hungary. And I’ve learnt that where there is room for two, there is also room
for three – or even four. Braver families may even find room for five. For
young women with two children and student loans, the Government will cancel
fifty per cent of their debt, and for those with three or more children one
hundred per cent of the student loan debt will be cancelled. For graduates we
shall extend the term of maternity leave by a year, and for university students
it is extended until the child reaches the age of two. Hungarians understand
the meaning of this family policy measure. “My home is my castle”: this is how
the Hungarians think, and this is another reason why it is difficult to adopt a
good policy here. We have decided that families with mortgages can have one
million forints written off their debt if they have three children, and one
million forints will be written off for each further child, with the state
bearing the burden. Finally, we shall embark on infant day care developments on
an unprecedented scale. We are going to build infant day care centres
everywhere families live, and we shall renovate existing infant day care
centres wherever necessary. We are also opening up our family support system –
although cautiously – to fellow Hungarians who live outside the borders As a
result, from next year they may also be eligible for maternity support after the
birth of children, and baby bonds will be available across the entire
Carpathian Basin.
In the interest of
our spiritual and intellectual competitiveness and good policy planning –
summoning up the spirit of Mária Kopp – we aim to set up a research institute.
I support this research institution becoming an international think tank to
provide sufficient knowledge and intellectual munitions to help and support
families, laying the philosophical foundations for our family policy, and
enabling accurate understanding of the situation in Europe and the world.
This, in essence, is
our response in May 2017 to the greatest existential question for European
civilisation. As far as I can see, we already have at our disposal the
intellectual munitions needed for a European – not just a Hungarian, but a
European – population turnaround. If we combined all the knowledge present in
this room now, I could state with confidence that we would have the
intellectual foundations for a European population turnaround. Of course there
can never be enough brave, good and new ideas, but this is not what we lack the
most. In Europe today we tend to lack good examples, and good, brave government
policies. Therefore Hungary would now like to contribute to Europe’s success by
setting a good, brave example of governmental action.
We know that we are sailing into
the wind. In Europe the political and media mainstream is driven more by
liberal ideology, which relativises values and which traditional families find
so offensive. But we Hungarians also know that it is possible to sail into the
wind. What’s more, it is even possible to make headway against the wind –
however surprising that may be. It is often said that no wind can help those
who do not know their destination. This is also true the other way round: if we
know the port we are aiming for, we can use any wind to reach our destination.
It only takes perseverance, courage and the backing of likeminded allies.
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