The Hungarian government has been working for families for twelve years to reverse the forty-year demographic decline, the Hungarian minister for family affairs said in her opening speech at the 4th Demographic Summit in Budapest.

Minister Katalin Novak emphasized that

since 2010, the Hungarian government considers it an opportunity, a duty and a responsibility to work for families, and has received a strong mandate for this task from the populace.

Demographic forecasts do not have to be accepted as fait accompli, they can be changed, the minister said, stressing that the future is in the hands of young people.

As Ms Novak put it, there is no future without children and there is no Hungarian future without Hungarian children. The minister said that the “demographic winter” is a serious problem not only in Hungary, but in the developed world as a whole, and therefore, cooperation and meetings like the demographic summit are needed.