The Czech Republic’s prime minister rejects the idea that immigration must be promoted in order to save an aging Europe all while family formation and births plummet, according to remarks he made Thursday at the Demographic Summit in Budapest, Hungary.
“Mass and uncontrolled migration to Europe has nothing to do with the sustainability of our European society — quite the contrary. The only truly sustainable solution against the extinction of Europe is to increase the birth rate of the indigenous population, which is a path shared by the V4 countries,” said Czech Prime Minister Babiš.
Babiš was joined by other politicians from Central and Eastern Europe at the summit designed to address Europe’s demographic future, according to Czech news portal Echo24. The topics of population growth and financial and other assistance to young families were also discussed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and former US Vice President Mike Pence at the summit.
The summit, now in its fourth year, emphasized the efforts to fight the aging of the population of Western countries through the support of young families and higher birthrates rather than immigration, which Orbán has long opposed. The Hungarian prime minister has also refused to talk about members of sexual minorities in connection with the family.
“We want to support a Europe where men and women form a family,” Orbán said.
Orbán has made raising the birth rate in his topic a top priority, with his government implement a range of tax cuts, credits, and programs which have led to less divorce, increased marriage rates, and higher birth rates. At the same time, Orbán has been one of the staunchest European leaders against mass migration, for example, writing last year:
“Liberal and conservative politics also clash – and even engage in a life-or-death struggle – on the issue of migration. According to loopy liberals, there is no reason to fear mass immigration, or even a flood of immigration; and there is no reason to fear it even if the national and religious traditions of the uninvited guests are starkly different from ours – or indeed opposed to ours. We are told that terrorism, crime, anti-Semitism and the emergence of parallel societies are only temporary irregularities, or perhaps the birth pangs of a radiant new world about to come into being. But the conservative-Christian democratic camp rejects such an unpredictable experiment on societies and individuals, because they believe that the risks of chronic intercultural tensions and violence are unacceptably high. Unless we ignore the laws of mathematics, it is not difficult to see the reality of sure, slow, but accelerating population replacement.“
This year’s discussion entitled “Family: The key to sustainability” focused mainly on the relationship between increased birth rates and sustainability. At a previous summit in 2019, for example, the Hungarian prime minister described the concept of “fewer children will save the climate” as “stupid” and “unnatural.”
“You can support families, or you can support open borders. You can’t support both,” said former US Vice President Pence, referring to the anti-immigration policy of Donald Trump’s administration.
The former vice president also mentioned abortions, which became the subject of debate in the United States when the Texas law banning all such procedures after about six weeks of pregnancy came into force. According to Pence, the facilities that carry out abortions contribute not only to demographic decline but also to the destabilization of society.
