Government officials at demographic summit: Having children a matter of values

Supporting and strengthening families is not just about finances, the state secretary for family and youth affairs said at the 3rd Budapest Demographic Summit on Friday. Starting a family and having children is a matter of values and culture, Katalin Novák said.

Novák said the summit’s mission was to find family-friendly solutions to demographic problems. This is why the event has brought together participants who see solutions in families, she said.

She said “genuine alliances” had begun to form at the forum and it was possible their achievements would be presented at the next demographic summit in 2021.

Csaba Dömötör, a cabinet office state secretary, said family policy would define the future. “Family policy must not be choked by political correctness. It must be discussed openly without taboos,” he said.

Besides providing needed support, it is also important to make the public well disposed towards the concept of the family, Dömötör said, adding that this required role models.

“We must speak honestly about the saving role of families and the threats to that. We declare that the family must not be allowed to become a field of ideological experimentation,” he said.

He said at the same time that when it came to the survival of the nation, the government had made no secret of its view that the future lay in the targeted support of families rather than immigration.

“This position may be obvious in Hungary, but this isn’t the case in every European country, especially on the left,” he said.

Regarding the government’s achievements in family policy, the state secretary said they were proud of the fact that the number of marriages were up while divorces were down. People are also more willing to have children, he said, though there was still much to be done in this respect.

Dömötör also urged dialogue on the effects of digital technologies on families.

Source: MTI