Catholic liberal arts college Campion College has enjoyed its first visit from a head of state: Hungarian President Katalin Novák. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Ms Novák visited Campion on October 25 to address students about her country’s unique pro-family policies, and the importance of faith in public and personal life.
In 2010, Hungary had the European Union’s lowest fertility rate—just 1.2 children per couple.
“That was the moment when we said, ‘We have to do something about that.’ So we introduced a very strong family-oriented policy in Hungary,” Ms Novák said.
“We try to enable people of your age to have as many children as they want to, in the moment when they want to have these children.”
Ms Novák said her country wanted to address the reasons why young men and women were not having children, and then consider migration “as a tool to overcome our demographic difficulties”.
Hungary now spends around six per cent of its GDP on family welfare policies—more than twice as much as defence. The more children a woman has, the less tax she pays.
Higher education loans are also reduced after each successive child, and are “totally written off” if a family has at least three children.
Housing subsidies, mortgage reductions, personal loans and other financial benefits tied to childbearing are also widely available.
Ms Novák, who was elected in 2021 after a career as a diplomat and government minister, said she was proud of her nation’s emphasis on “the importance of traditional family values”.
She also spoke about her Reformed Christian faith, encouraging the students to persist despite opposition from mainstream culture.
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Cherish kids, faith, pro-life president says (The Catholic Weekly)
