Among this year’s guests of honor were Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Tanzanian Vice President Philip Isdor Mpango, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who gave a speech announcing new e important demographic measures aimed at supporting traditional family values. .
The summit discussed an alarming trend in the form of what experts called the “democratic winter”: a sharp drop in the birth rate in EU member countries, necessary to maintain population size. Most participants in the forum adhere to traditional conservative values and oppose the growing influence of homosexuals in Europe.
Hungarian President Katalin Nowak was State Secretary for Family Affairs, then Minister of Family Affairs and now performs mainly ceremonial duties. In her speech, she said she had three children between 2004 and 2008, during Hungary’s socialist government, when paid family leave was cut and other government aid to families and homeowners was cut or eliminated. However, the efforts of the next government managed to raise the birth rate in Hungary from a historic low.
Novak presented a manifesto titled “12 points of the struggle of Hungarian families for freedom.” He emphasized that the “demographic winter” that has begun in the developed world is turning into an “ice age,” but if there are no children there is no future, Hungary Today reports. According to his manifesto, people should have the freedom to raise their children, free from harmful ideologies. The document also states that at the highest levels of government there should be family-supportive decision-makers, and that kindergartens and schools should remain safe. At the same time, someone who has a child should not be allowed to risk falling into poverty.
“Whoever was born a girl must grow up as a girl, and whoever was born a boy must grow up as a boy. Taking care of the family must be a national minimum,” concluded Katalin Nowak.
For her part, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, stated that family issues and the fight against the increase in low birth rates are at the center of her government’s program. Meloni noted that previous generations of Europeans had children even in times of war and poverty, but today’s Europe faces a demographic crisis despite relative prosperity. She also highlighted “alarming forecasts” about future demographic changes in Europe and Italy. Meloni recalled how, during her election campaign, she was ridiculed in the Italian media for simply declaring: “I am Georgia, I am a mother, I am a woman, I am a Christian and I am Italian,” which she saw as evidence of “an attack on Italian identity.” However, this incident ultimately helped her win the election.
Meloni said that she and the Hungarian Prime Minister are good friends and have been for a long time. During the inauguration of the new Italian government, the Hungarian Prime Minister stated that it was “a great day for the European right.” Meloni also praised Hungary as an excellent example of effective family policy. For his part, Orban stated that demographic collapse due to low birth rates poses a much greater risk to civilization than global warming. According to Orbán, currently “there is no possibility of convincing the current progressive and liberal elites.” “Therefore, they simply have to be put aside,” explained the Hungarian prime minister.
Experts at the forum said the Old World is sinking deeper into a “demographic winter”: Europe’s population is aging rapidly and the birth rate on the continent is falling rapidly. In Europe it is significantly lower than in any other continent. The current birth rate is so low that each generation in European countries is smaller than the previous one.
Meanwhile
EU member states have negative rates of natural change: mortality exceeds the birth rate in Bulgaria (-6.0 per 1,000 people), Lithuania (-3.7), Romania (-3.5), Croatia and Latvia (both -3.4). Europe’s share of the world’s population will decline significantly, experts say. In 2015, the EU had 509.4 million inhabitants, around 6.9 percent of the world’s total population, down from 13.5 percent in 1960, and their share is expected to fall further to just 4 .1 percent by the end of this century. A pessimistic feeling of decadence and fear that the West, and especially Europe, will lose in global competition and become an “insignificant periphery” in relation to the new centers of power in Asia, notes the Ecrgroup, prevails in European expert circles. . group of experts.
