Katalin Novák, Minister for Family Affairs, has confirmed that the fourth Budapest Demographic Summit will be held on Sept. 23-24 and will host some 70 speakers.
The minister said that like all developed countries, Hungary is facing a demographic crisis. However, its government sees the solution in supporting families rather than in mass immigration. Results of this approach include the largest growth in the number of marriages and a growing readiness to raise children, she said.
The list of speakers includes Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, former US Vice-President Mike Pence, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, as well as the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s presidential troika, will also attend. Scientists, researchers, religious leaders and the heads of civil organizations will also attend.
The summit is being organized by Hungarian pro-family NGOs around the connections between demographics and sustainability, Novák said. “The world is sustainable if there are children born and we pass the world on to them in a better state than in which we received it,” she said.
The biannual demographic summit, which was first organized in 2015, aims to showcase Hungary’s achievements and for Hungary to exchange experiences with other countries.