“Supporting and reinforcing families is not just about finances, and having children and starting a family is a question of culture and values”, State Secretary for Family and Youth Affairs Katalin Novák declared at the 3rd Budapest Demographic Summit.

The Ministry of Human Capacities’ State Secretary said the goal of the conference was to offer family-friendly solutions to demographic problems, and accordingly the invited speakers are also people who see families as the solution.

“At the meeting, we saw the development of true alliances, the results of which will be reported on by the participants in two years’ time at the next Summit”, she highlighted.

The State Secretary specifically praised guitarist Ferenc Snétberger, who performed at the conference, and who regularly searches throughout the Carpathian Basin for talented, primarily Roma children, who he teaches not only music, but also “life” in his school, which has been receiving government funding for years.

In his lecture, the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary State Secretary Csaba Dömötör called the issue of families a critical one, highlighting: “Political correctness cannot restrict family policy; we must conduct an honest dialogue without any taboos”.

“In addition to providing the necessary funding, care must also be taken to ensure that the public as a whole are family-friendly, and this requires role models”, he emphasised.

“We must speak honestly about the retentive role of families and the dangers threatening that retention. We must clearly state that the family cannot be a terrain for ideological experiments”, Mr. Dömötör said, noting that the Government has never made a secret of the fact that it sees the future in the targeted funding of families that raise children, rather than in immigration.

“In Hungary, this stance may seem self-explanatory, but this is not true of every state in Europe, and particularly not on the Left”, he added.

The State Secretary listed the results of Government communication, including the National Consultations. He also stressed that everybody’s life situation must be taken into account, including people with no children and families with many children.

With relation to the results, “we are proud of the fact” that under the current administration the number of marriages has increased, there are fewer divorces, and people’s willingness to have children has increased, he stated, acknowledging the fact that there is still much to be done with relation to the latter.

“The debates on new digital technologies and their effects on families must also be conducted”, he said. “Today, within this field we must still do battle against unforeseeable dangers”, Mr. Dömötör added.

President of the Central European Press and Media Foundation Milkós Szánthó highlighted the fact that one of the goals of the organisation, which comprises some 450 media outlets, is to present marriage and the family based on the relationship between man and woman as a natural value, and to protect this value.

“Today, we unfortunately must also provide protection to what is otherwise self-explanatory”, he said, highlighting the “soft persuasion” life model message role of the media, and stressing that “today, protecting the family is by no means an easy task”.

“The way and method by which we live our lives here in Central Europe is under comprehensive attack”, he declared, adding: “Instead of true freedom, the fighters of progressivity and the liberals are luring people with the promise of indulgence, and with the wish to realise individual interests and individual desires to an unbridled extent”.

“The capability and experience of being able to control oneself is what leads to true freedom; what shows that we are the true masters of our lives is that one does not confuse happiness with pleasure”, he declared.

“We must be at the forefront, and we must indicate and boast, including via such excellent conferences, the wisdom of our forefathers, that our parents were right, and that the future of the West, of Europe and of Hungary lies not in migration and not in humanoid robots, but in us and in our families”, Mr. Szánthó said.

Hungary’s Ambassador to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen spoke about the fact that: “At the bottom of their hearts, everyone wants a family, and accordingly the institution can be promoted by showing positive examples”.

“The attacks from social media can be best handled through searching for dialogue and through showing understanding, not through retaliatory strikes”, he stated.

(MTI)