Orbán announces major family protection package for Hungary

Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced a seven-point family protection action plan in his state-of-the nation address in Budapest.

“This is Hungary’s answer to challenges, rather than immigration”, the prime minister said.

Listing the points of the action plan, Orban said

• every woman under 40 years of age will be eligible to a preferential loan when they first get married.
• The preferential loan of the family home purchase scheme (csok) will be extended; families raising two or more children will now also be able to use it for purchasing resale homes.
• The government will repay 1 million forints of the mortgage loan of families with two or more children. This measure was first announced in August 2017 for families with three or more children, with the government paying off 1 million forints of families’ mortgages for every third and subsequent child from January 2018. The measures has now been extended to include families raising two children.
• Women who have had and raised at least four children will be exempt from personal income tax payment for the rest of their lives.
• The government will launch a car purchase subsidy programme for large families. Families raising at least three children will be eligible to a grant of 2.5 million forints to buy a new car seating at least seven people.
• The government will create 21,000 creche places over three years.
• Grandparents will also be eligible to a child-care fee and look after young children instead of the parents, the prime minister added.

Read the rest here.