– Once again, Hungary is in the limelight of global attention, this time because of the Budapest Demographic Summit that's become a trademark of the country. Hungary's family support scheme and family-friendly policies have become a positive example for the world, mainly because they have proved that - contrary to the pro-migration proposals put forward by liberals - there is another solution to overcome Europe's demographic challenges, according to a recent analysis by the Center for Fundamental Rights. It describes
Hungary as the flagship of conservative family policy.
The motto of the event - "The family is the guarantee of security" - shows that without the upbringing of new generations and their integration into the labor market, the nation will not only decline culturally, but its economy will also become unsustainable. This is why
it is of paramount importance to strengthen families at a difficult time, when the threats and crisis caused by the coronavirus are followed by the horrors and negative effects of war.
– The Western world has already had two very different responses to the negative demographic trends. The liberal mainstream wants to solve the problem through mass migration, while the conservative side wants to support families by increasing the number of births," they stressed, adding that
encouraging a type of unfettered, "no-strings-attached" immigration isn't the answer, as it is now clear that the masses arriving in Europe aren't suitable to solve the continent's labor shortages.
In their analysis, they also referred to the survey carried out in 2021, which shows that just 18% of all immigrants having valid residence permits arrived in the EU with the intention to work.
– The model offering a real solution was developed by Hungary, and the results speak for themselves: between 2011 and 2021, the total fertility rate in the country has increased by around 29 percent, the number of marriages grew by 101 percent, and the number of abortions in Hungary fell by 46 percent, the analysis points out.
The Budapest Demographic Summit - organized for the fifth time by Katalin Novak, who has made family-friendly policies her mission even as head of state - is not just a way to boost Hungary's reputation in the current crisis-ridden period, they said.
– In addition to the "diplomatic blitz" - which will allow Hungarian conservatives to deepen their alliance with Italy's right wing led by Giorgia Meloni and others - the capital Budapest will also welcome influential experts such as Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman, and renowned Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan B. Peterson. All this could greatly help the reflection process, which focuses on developing policy instruments that can restore families' sense of security in the face of uncertainty, creating opportunities for our country to continue on the path out of depopulation," the Center for Fundamental Rights has said.
Cover photo: Demography Summit in Budapest (Source: Facebook/Katalin Novak)
