Families cannot be replaced by immigrants in Europe’s future, says Orban on Budapest Demography Forum

Budapest, November 5 (MTI) – The European Union cannot afford to build a future based on immigrants rather than on families, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in his opening address to the Budapest Demography Forum on Thursday.

Communities should be sustainable without using external sources, Orban said, adding that “those that expect help from others will sooner or later pay a price” and suggested that the migrants “flooding Europe” will not resolve the continent’s economic or demographic problems overnight.

The prime minister said that even though Europe was “the most ageing continent”, families do not get sufficient focus in European policies because that subject is “not pc”.

“We want to restore families to the focus of European politics,” Orban said, and warned that “Europe’s civilisation and culture are at stake”.

One crucial question revolves around who will be Europe’s inhabitants in the future, Orban said. “It would be worthwhile talking about that seriously; still, some other subjects get a lot more time, focus, energy and money,” Orban said, mentioning disputes around gender and gay marriages, for example. Those subjects are “nice” and “important” but of secondary importance, he said, insisting that they would not contribute to resolving Europe’s economic or social problems.

The Hungarian government is going to great lengths to make it clear that supporting families does not equal curbing freedoms; “that conflation is a cunning trick which must be revealed so that we can honestly support the family and our values,” Orban said.

The majority of Hungarians think that children are a blessing for the family and society, Orban said, arguing that “there is no future without children and no security for the elderly”.