Hungary will provide FREE IVF for couples in latest bid to increase the population

Hungary will offer free IVF to childless couples in its latest bid to boost its declining population instead of welcoming more migrants.

Right wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced the policy yesterday saying he wants ‘Hungarian children instead of immigrants.’

The government has already taken over six private fertility clinics to provide the free service from February 1.

The country already offers income tax exemptions and £7,000 towards a new seven-seat car to mothers with four or more children.

And Orban said he was considering extending the offer to families with just three children.

Orban, a right-wing nationalist, has long advocated a ‘procreation over immigration’ approach to boost the population which has been falling steadily for four decades.

Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians have emigrated in the last decade, mainly to western Europe, and the birth rate of 1.48 babies per woman is also declining.

Orban hopes the fertility drive will lead to 4,000 extra births in the country, which has a population of 9.8million, by 2022.

Addressing the nation in Budapest, he said: ‘If we want Hungarian children instead of immigrants, and if the Hungarian economy can generate the necessary funding, then the only solution is to spend as much of the funds as possible on supporting families and raising children.’

Mr Orban has been in power since 2010 winning three consecutive elections using far right anti-immigration rhetoric including the ‘great replacement’ theory which claims white European populations are being gradually replaced.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban advocates a ‘procreation over immigration’ approach

‘There are political forces in Europe who want a replacement of population for ideological or other reasons,’ Orban said in a speech in September.

Last month the government announced it was buying six private fertility clinics, four in the capital Budapest and two elsewhere.

Orban insisted they had been ‘acquired’ and not ‘nationalised’ as they were bought rather than taken over.

He also described fertility clinics as being ‘of national strategic importance’ and advised private firms against investing in them as ‘they will not get permits’. 

Hungary announced plans to give income tax breaks and cash towards new seven-seat cars for mothers with four children last February and the policy came into force this month. 

The country is also offering low-interest loans of 10 million forints (£27,286) for women under the age of 40 who are marrying for the first time. 

Announcing the policy at the time he said: ‘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. 

Hungary is just one of many Eastern European countries facing demographic decline – due to both low birth rates and the emigration of working-age people to other EU nations. 

Poland pays parents 500 zloty (£100) a month per child under its 500+ policy.

Croatia, which assumed presidency of the EU last week, said last year that population growth in the EU would be ‘a key question’ for them.