Orban: 'Without families and children, a national community could end up disappearing'

Without families and children, a national community could end up disappearing, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a speech to the Budapest Demographic Summit III on Thursday. "And if a nation disappears, something irreplaceable disappears from the world," he said at the event held in the Varkert Bazaar, where he said one of the state's goals and the government's task was to pursue a vigorous demographic policy. He said the "solution of immigration" and the "mindless green argument that the Earth would be better off with fewer births" were off the table when it came to the issue of demography. He said Hungary's family support scheme would only reach a turning point when those who decide to have children enjoyed a higher standard of living than if they had opted against having children. Hungary's family policy is based on the concept and conviction that every child has a right to have a father and a mother, Orban said and that a family and children are prerequisites of "the biological reproduction of a national community".