"It's been two years since we held the last conference. The world has changed since then and we are in the shadow of a war," PM Orban told the Budapest Demographic Summit. He went on to emphasize that, fortunately, good things had also happened, like the Italian right securing an election win, in a last-minute victory.
"The friendship between the two countries is ironclad, because both nations are home to freedom fighters. Both countries know that there is no freedom without authority, and that families are the foundation of nations,"
he noted.
PM Orban also underlined that Bulgaria was an important partner for Hungary in providing protection against illegal migration, and also in the field of energy security. He extended a special welcome to the Azeri and Bosnian delegations. Hungary is a strong bastion of support for families in the world, and attacks only make us stronger, he pointed out.
The Demographic Summit is important
"As you may know, Hungary is the most vocal advocate for families and demographic issues in international politics. This will not change, and the attacks on the Hungarian government in the liberal world will only harden us. There is no change," Hungary's prime minister said.
It is important to hold a demographic forum again after two years, because Europe is still led by a progressive, liberal elite, he explained, adding that instead of dealing with crucial issues, such as the demographic future of the continent, Europe is preoccupied with all kinds of half-baked notions and nonsense.
Mr Orban recalled that the Soviets were dead serious about reversing the directional flow of some rivers and overwriting the world order. This is what came to mind when the European Parliament voted two years ago that men can give birth to children.
He pointed out that an analysis by MCC found that the various Eurobarometer surveys reflect only on the fears of the progressive political elite and not on what people are concerned about.
"In a dictatorship, we can easily imagine leaders operating in their own bubble, but it is unthinkable that this could happen in a Western democracy, where the will of the electorate is decisive. And European citizens are most concerned about how they can start a family, create a secure home and bring their children up in safety. These are demographic issues, yet they are not the focus of European politics," the Hungarian PM underlined.
In his view, this may be because the liberals have hijacked the interpretation of how the world works, propagating that the individual is the most important thing in the world with nothing surpassing it. They see tyranny in everything and everyone, in family, in homeland and in God. And yet, limitations also serve to prop us up and give us support to help us step higher up and become who God created us to be. True, living together in a family comes with restrictions, but without them there is no freedom. We know here in Hungary that freedom requires at least two people, and those who are alone are not free, but lonely. He stressed that liberals are creating fears, which instill an unrealistic fear of the future.
Europe acts out of fear
"They expect people to subordinate all their actions to some impending apocalypse. Europe acts out of fear. They say there is no future and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is why it is an absolute duty to have demographic summits. It is the biggest forum where we can address the most important issues: home, family and having children," he added.
He pointed out that Hungary's demographic policy has set five goals for itself: making having children an advantage, helping families establish a home, making family policy based on mothers, making the whole country family-friendly, and protecting this through legislative means.
"Since 2010, the income of families with one child has doubled, while that of families with more children has tripled. One in five families has a new home," he said, adding that the biggest threat to mothers in Hungary is having to raise their children alone, but now three out of four children are born into families. At the same time, he said, a personal income tax (PIT) exemption had been introduced for mothers of four, and that there are plans to extend it to mothers of three.
"We need to change the political palette, to spell it out: we need a change of course, we need to get family-centric, conservative forces at the helm of governments in as many European countries as possible. As we will also have European Parliament elections next year, we have everything we need to turn the balance of power in our favor with an all-out operation. In the meantime, we Hungarians must do our homework here, at home, and we must gather new momentum and put together the Hungarian Family Policy 2.0 program. I hope that the pro-family forces will win the elections at home, and next spring we will win the European Parliament elections together, and that - jointly - we will achieve a turnaround in Europe's family policy" PM Orban said, in conclusion of his speech.
Cover photo: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Photo: Zoltan Havran)
