Hungary Begins National Family Consultation To Combat ‘Population Replacement’

The Hungarian government began a new national survey this week to tackle the problem of the country’s declining population without resorting to a policy of mass migration.

The new national survey which bears the title “Defence of Families,” contains ten questions sent to around eight million different households across the country and looks to see what Hungarians think of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s pro-family policies, AFP reports.

State secretary Katalin Novak commented on the launch of the survey, saying: “Europe is the continent of empty cradles, there aren’t enough children.”

“In spite of the significant mass migration toward Europe, Hungary wants to rely on its internal resources,” Novak said and added, “we see the future in Hungarian children,… Hungary does not want immigration or population replacement.”

Breitbart London reported in November on the impact these policies are already having on Hungary. According to official government statistics, since the second Orban government came to power in 2010 divorce has fallen by a fifth, and marriage has increased by over 40 percent.

Even the number of abortions has fallen by a third, even without the Hungarian government introducing any policies to restrict access to them — instead, support for families and foster carers has been boosted, removing some incentives to kill unborn children.

Population replacement, or “replacement migration” a term used by the United Nations, seeks to use mass migration in order to prop up the birthrates of countries and fill needed labour shortages.

While some have argued for mass migration as a way to both counter declining populations and prop up welfare states, others like Mr Orban and populist Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini have rejected mass migration, opting to promote larger families instead.

In September, Salvini made his case clear, saying: “I believe that I’m in government in order to see that our young people have the number of children that they used to a few years ago, and not to transplant the best of Africa’s youth to Europe.”

He later proposed a policy in which Italians could receive farmland from the state for having at least three children to both grow the population and revitalise rural areas of the country.

The current national survey comes after another national survey that asked Hungarian voters their opinion on the influence of pro-mass migration left-wing billionaire George Soros, who recently relocated his Open Society foundation from Budapest to Berlin following the implementation of laws targetting his NGO network.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com