PM Orban: We will extend income tax exemption to mothers with three children

Family-friendly, conservative forces must come to power in the governments of as many European countries as possible, Viktor Orban said in his speech at the Budapest Demographic Summit. The prime minister contended that Hungary was the most vocal advocate of families and demographic issues in international politics.

Photo: Eurostat

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)