Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that women who have four children would never have to pay income tax again on Sunday.
Orban unveiled this offer as a part of a seven-part plan during his annual “State of the Nation” speech on Sunday.
“I hereby announce that women who have given birth to and raised a minimum of four children will be exempt from the payment of personal income tax for the rest of their lives,” Orban said near the end of his speech.
The prime minister’s plan comes at the end of his speech, right after he talked about population and immigration issues in Hungary.
“We are living in times when fewer and fewer children are being born throughout Europe. People in the West are responding to this with immigration,” Orban said. “We don’t need numbers, but Hungarian children.”
Hungary’s population is declining. Its staunchly anti-immigrant leader Victor Orban says incentives for large families will “ensure the survival of the Hungarian nation” https://t.co/BBsPEiNTQF
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 11, 2019
Orban’s plan would also incentivize young couples to start families by introducing an “allowance” to young couples who have children. Also, women under the age of 40 who marry will be able to get a “preferential loan” of 10 million forints, which is equivalent to roughly $350,000.
The speech also included some rhetoric against the E.U., as well as Hungarian investor George Soros.
Regarding Soros, Orban said it is a “widely known fact that the Hungarian opposition is an assemblage of pro-immigration politicians, which George Soros and the European bureaucrats are keeping on life support.” (RELATED: Hungary’s PM Stands Against Soros And Migrants To Preserve His Country’s Christian Culture)
Some other parts of Orban’s seven-step plan included “family housing benefits,” “a car purchase program for larger families” and “child care allowances for grandparents.”
Hungary’s birth rate is below average when compared to other European countries, according to a Eurostat survey done in 2018.