Hungary bets on baby boom to boost population

Faced with a plummeting population, Hungary’s fiercely antiimmigration Prime Minister Viktor Orban has come up with an answer sparking yet another controversy: “We need Hungarian children.’’ Earlier this month Orban unveiled a seven-point “family protection action plan” stacked with incentives for young couples to have children. Opinion is divided however as to whether it will have the desired effect. The policies announced by Orban include lifelong tax exemption for women who bear four or more children, and more kindergartens.

It also offers lump-sum, 10 million forint ($36,000) loans for newlywed women under 40, cancelled once they have three children.

“This — not immigration — is the response of the Hungarian people,” said Orban, a 55-year-old father of five, during a state-of-thenation speech that was greeted with rapturous applause.

“With 10 million forints my partner and I can finally think of buying an apartment around here and moving out from my parents’ at last,” said Nora Koszeghy, a 24-year-old teacher outside a supermarket in a Budapest suburb.

“We were planning for a brother or sister for Juli. Maybe she can have two or even three now, who knows,” she said.

Supporters of Orban’s seven-point plan — including Hungary’s ambassador to the Vatican — have hailed his family policies as “visionary”.

Pro-government pundits argue that only such direct action can prop up a population that has been falling since 1981, and which could shrink from its current 9.7 to six million by 2070, according to a recent report by Hungary’s Central Statistical Office (KSH).

Hungary’s fertility rate, the lowest in the EU at around 1.25 children per woman in 2010, has risen to near the bloc’s average of 1.6, according to figures published by Eurostat, the EU’S statistical body.

Dorottya Szikra, a sociologist at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, says the measures mostly benefit middle- and higher-income earners.

But the government has come out fighting against criticism of the plan.

When Sweden’s Social Affairs Minister Annika Strandhall said the action plan was “alarming” and “reeked of the 1930s”, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto was quick to respond.

“Hungary is spending its money on families rather than migrants,” he retorted.

While the results of the new ‘baby boom’ plan will only be visible over the long term, polls suggest at least a short-term bounce for Orban.