Hungary invests its 4% of GDP in the defence of families and becomes the reference for EU countries
European leaders who support family policies met on Friday, November 18th in Madrid to participate in the seminar on Best International Practices to Support the Family, organized by the Familia y Dignidad Humana association.
The meeting was held at the Colegio Mayor San Pablo-CEU in Madrid and 200 people attended the morning session. It has become evident that there is a need to encourage support for the family as the axis of the Social policies by European governments, a support already visible in the general budgets of states such as Hungary, where the budget dedicated to family policies amounts to 4% of the national GDP, compared to the average 2.51% of the OECD.
This fact was explained by the Hungarian government’s Minister for Family and Youth, Katalin Novák, who highlighted that the strong commitment of her Executive for the family is manifested in the fact that “it is a transversal priority of all the ministries, and this is reflected in the unanimity in the budgetary assignment”.
Novák remarked that the commitment to the family is a substantive issue that her Government shares, because “neutrality is not a good choice. We are a Christian government, and we must keep those values in mind when it comes to governing”.
Regarding the trends of some European countries, the Hungarian Family Minister pointed out that “it is necessary to differentiate between social policies and family policies, because the family is not a problem, but a resource. This does not prevent, however, the government from helping families with difficulties.
The shatter of Hollande
Ludovine de la Rochère, the French president of La Manif pour Tous, explained the other side of European political action regarding the family, looking at France. In particular, she highlighted that “President Hollande has knocked down all the pillars of family policy of the previous administrations” and she underlined the failure of the French government in the achievement of transversal family policies. According to de la Rochère, “as a result of Hollande’s administration, since 2015 the birth rate has fallen in France to 1,96. It is a fact that shows the relationship between family policies and the birth rate”.
The leader of La Manif pour Tous warned of the endeavour of “the left to deconstruct the family seeking to replace biological filiation with social affiliation and to consider it a core in which the first of inequalities is generated: that of man and woman.”
On the other hand, Kresimir Pláninic, co-founder of In the Name of the Family, called for a “legal framework for the protection of the family”, and Martin Patzelt, Member of the Bundestag, explained the change of the values that has taken place in Germany regarding the family as a consequence of the economic prosperity. Thus, “children are considered as providers of happiness, as long as they are not more than two, because otherwise they restrain the freedom and welfare of their parents.”
Former Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja, president of Valores y Sociedad, moderated the international roundtable of positive policies to support the family. In his view, defenders of the family “must find our place in the debate of ideas to fight against this new world order.”
The president of Familia y Dignidad Humana, Lourdes Méndez, highlighted, during the inauguration of the forum, that “it is true that there are different anthropological viewpoints of man and the family. Visions ranging from the radical liberalism to the historical materialism. Within this variety, the Christian anthropological vision emphasizes the centrality of the human being and recognizes and supports the importance of the family”.
Spanish short-termism
Positive political experiences in favour of the family in Spain were also present at this meeting. The mayor of Guadalajara, Antonio Román; The president of The Family Watch in Spain, Carlos Martínez de Aguirre; The president of the Foro Español de la Familia, Mariano Calabuig, and the general director of the Más Familia Foundation, Rafael Fuertes; they highlighted the social political trail of some activities promoted by some executives in favour of the family, and they called for a less short-term and a more confident vision in order to support, with actions and budgets, the good health of the current and the future Spanish families.