Mothers with four children will be exempt from income tax and receive £7,000 towards a seven-seater car in Hungary after country vows to boost its birth rate
- Viktor Orban announced measures during state of the nation address yesterday
- New financial aid was put in place to encourage women to have more children
- Benefits include a lifetime personal income-tax exemption for mothers of four
Mothers with four children will be exempt from income tax and will receive £7,000 towards the cost of a new car in an attempt by Hungary to boost its birth rate.
The country’s prime minister Viktor Orban announced the measures during his annual state of the nation address yesterday.
Mr Orban, who was elected for a third consecutive term in April, said the initiative is meant to ‘ensure the survival of the Hungarian nation’, adding: ‘This is the Hungarians’ answer, not immigration.’
Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban announced the measures during his ‘state of the nation’ speech on Sunday
The benefits include a lifetime personal income tax exemption for women who give birth and raise at least four children.
A subsidy of 2.5 million forints (£6,821) will also be available towards the purchase of a seven-seat vehicle for families with three or more children.
The country will also offer a low-interest loan of 10 million forints (£27,286) for women under the age of 40 who are marrying for the first time.
In the address, the prime minister also listed some of his government’s economic achievements, such as low unemployment, and vowed to fight poverty in the speech.
He then turned his attention to May’s European Parliament elections, repeating his accusation that the leadership of the European Union wants to fill the continent with migrants.
‘We have to understand that the European peoples have come to a historical crossroads,’ Mr Orban said.
The benefits include a lifetime personal income tax exemption for women who give birth and raise at least four children
‘Those who decide in favour of immigration and migrants, no matter why they do so, are in fact creating a country with a mixed population.’
Europe’s left-wing has become ‘the gravedigger of nations, the family and the Christian way of life’, Mr Orban said.
After his speech, several hundred members and supporters of Hungary’s main opposition parties held an anti-Orban rally in Buda Castle.
The event was a protest against heavy fines the state audit office had recently imposed on several opposition parties.
A small group of protesters used their cars to block traffic from crossing the Chain Bridge over the Danube River for most of the day.
Opposition leaders said the fines, which cannot be challenged in Hungarian courts, were politically motivated and meant to hinder their campaigns for the European Parliament and municipal elections later this year.