Children to get the right to vote in Hungary?

An NGO published its collection of initiatives aiming to improve bad Hungarian demographic data. They would, for example, give mothers as many plus votes as many children they raise.

According to Magyar Nemzet, the Összefogás a Gyermek- és Családbarát Magyarországért Szakértői Műhely published a collection of new initiatives aiming to help Hungarian families to have more children. The book quotes Árpád Kovács, chairman of the Monetary Council, who previously said that

there can be no bright Hungarian future without increasing fertility rates. 

The new volume gives a comprehensive analysis of the past and present of the Hungarian demography and compiles the suggestions regarding the issue of many different fields, from pension to employment policy. The goal of the 200 experts writing in the book was to develop a plan able to solve the demographic problems of Hungary.

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And the problem is huge since, based on some calculations and without a significant change, there will only be 5 million Hungarians by the end of this century. Pál Demény, a globally known Hungarian demographer, wrote that the current fertility rate around 1.5 was unacceptable. Emőke Bagdy added that the issue is not only a question of “quantity” but also of “quality” since the task is

to have “enough” children raised by families who have a chance to become happy adults.

The new book highlights that the roots of Hungary’s demographic problems are the extension of female employment in the 1950s and the state’s policy to charge the cost of raising the new generation on Hungarian families. They say that the state should support the Ratkó-grandchildren who are between 35 and 45 now because, based on a 2017 survey, 25 pc of them (meaning 400 thousand women) would like to have at least one more kid. Anna Ratkó was a Communist health minister of Hungary in the 1950s who forbade abortion, encouraged people to have children, and introduced the tax on childlessness. As a result, the number of newborns skyrocketed in Hungary.

In the short term, the civil organisation would establish a ministry for families and community development, they would introduce a career model for parents, and they would encourage the development of local and regional demographic strategies. In the middle term, they

would give higher pensions for those who raised children,

they would reform the current taxation system to favour parents, and they would issue so-called “parent bonds”. Finally, in the long term, they would modify how schools operate, and they would reform the social insurance system.

Even demographers dispute what the career model for parents should mean exactly. There is a concept saying that the state should allow women having 4 or more underage children to be stay-at-home mums and, in return, they should get a fair salary for their work. There is another idea

extending the right to vote to children under 18 and giving it to their mothers.

Source: Magyar Nemzet