The Guardian’s investigative report on Hungary’s incentive for families – VIDEO

Since 2016, when the Orbán government introduced the CSOK that stands for Családi Otthonteremtési Kedvezmény – which roughly translates to “home-starting allowance for families” –, there has been an ongoing debate about the effects and importance of this action. Several groups have debated that this initiative and general steer towards supporting families with two, three, or even more children are pushing women to have children and that the government views women as baby-making machines.

The Guardian just recently released a video in which they interviewed three different Hungarian women and asked what they think about this general governmental incentive and what their experience is on whether there is social pressure on them or not. When the government introduced this package,

Orbán said that families with two children could receive HUF 22 million (€61,000) and families with three (or more) children could receive HUF 35 million (€97,000) worth of allowance.

In 2019, the government also introduced even more allowances and other assistances for families, such as financial help to purchasing new family cars.

In general, with the help of several media outlets, both online and offline and through conferences, the government wants to promote the idea to start families. This sometimes can go in both directions as not so long ago, one of their campaign videos sparked controversy. You can read about the case HERE. In Hungary, just as in Europe in general, the ageing of the population is a reality, and the government thinks that helping their own country’s citizens to settle down and have more children is the solution to the problem.

The Guardian’s journalist, Leah Green, first interviewed the editor-in-chief of She, a popular website for women in Hungary. It generally deals with topics such as fashion, women’s relationships, and careers. In their meeting, the editors talked about new topic ideas and were pondering about the recent opinions on marriage and having children. As we also wrote in our guide to dating Hungarian women, Vanda mentioned that most Hungarian women are romantic and family-oriented:

“Most Hungarian women have the desire to have children and to have a family, but I have experienced that, recently, having kids usually comes much later in many people’s lives.”