Not wanting to let in immigrants, prime minister begs Hungarian women to have more babies

Viktor Orban.
(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Rather than welcome in immigrants, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has come up with an expensive plan to boost the population.

In his state of the nation address on Sunday, Orban said that any woman who has four or more children won't ever have to pay income tax again. "In all of Europe there are fewer and fewer children, and the answer of the West to this is migration," he said. "They want as many migrants to enter as they 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." He also said families with several children will receive mortgage help, and more spots will open at nursery schools.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.