Socialists slam government for failure to stop population decline

Budapest, August 6 (MTI) – The opposition Socialists criticised the government for its failure to stop Hungary’s population decline, with “tragically” low number of births and “inexplicably” high mortality.

The number of births was 99,149 in the year when the global financial crisis broke out, and dropped to 88,149 in 2011, Socialist lawmaker Ildikó Borbály Bangó told MTI. Even though last year there was a 5 percent increase compared to 2011, the government failed to reverse previous years’ trend and the number of births again dropped in the first five months of this year, she added.

Despite the government’s repeated declarations about helping families, more than half a million active workers have left the country, and having children is seen as the largest risk for poverty. Some 42.2 percent of children aged under 7 live in poverty, she said.

Regional discrepancies have been constantly increasing and the government has failed to make sufficient efforts to fight them, the lawmaker said.

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The system is even distorted by the flat tax rate, the family tax allowance and the government’s family policies and economic policies, she said.

Source: MTI