Monday morning, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — as was his custom on all previous occasions — proudly announced on Facebook the birth of his fifth grandchild, Bertalan.
“Nearly a football team. God bless you, Bertalan,” he wrote.
By “nearly a football team”, Orbán meant that the combined number of his children and grandchildren has reached ten with the arrival of Bertalan — the Hungarian version of Bartholomew.
As a strong advocate of bigger families in Hungary and someone who places an emphasis on family policies that encourage higher birth rates instead of more immigration, Orbán also leads by example. The 57-year-old prime minister of Hungary has five children, four girls and a boy, and now also five grandchildren — three from his daughter Ráhel and two from Sára.
Hungary’s pro-family policies have led to an increase in the country’s birthrate, and Orbán but has refused to embrace the mass migration as a solution to declining population, as has been the case in other European nations.
“In all of Europe there are fewer and fewer children, and the answer of the West to this is migration,” said Orbán in 2018. “They want as many migrants to enter as there are missing kids, so that the numbers will add up. We Hungarians have a different way of thinking. Instead of just numbers, we want Hungarian children. Migration for us is surrender.”
In July of this year, Orbán announced the birth of his fourth grandchild.
