“If it doesn’t succeed, then obviously I’ll be devastated, and then the last resort will be trying to make sure that, at least financially, we don’t lose everything,” Barbara tells BBC Global Women.
Barbara, 33, a social worker, and her partner Levi, 34, a chef, are among many young Hungarian couples caught between ambitious family incentives and the harsh reality of infertility. The couple took a 10 million‑forint (about £25,000) interest-free loan under Hungary’s pronatalist schemes, which reward families who promise to have children. Because they have struggled to conceive naturally, they face a deadline: if they cannot prove a pregnancy by 1 November, they could be forced to repay the loan with penalty interest of 1.5–3.5 million forint (£3,700–£8,600) a sum they say they cannot afford. A related mortgage subsidy carries similar repayment conditions.
Hungary’s generous family policies began in earnest after Viktor Orbán returned to power in 2010. The government introduced a wide range of measures from loan forgiveness and subsidies to tax breaks designed to boost the birth rate. Policymakers argue these incentives will help reverse population decline, a concern driven by Hungary’s fertility rate falling well below the 2.1 births-per-woman replacement level, combined with high emigration and low immigration.
This challenge is not unique to Hungary. Many European countries have recorded fertility rates below replacement level since the 1980s, and today more than half of the world’s nations face similar demographic pressures. While some Western countries rely on immigration to maintain population levels, Hungary’s government has prioritized raising native-born birth rates. As a Fidesz spokesperson put it at the time: “In the West, the answer to this is immigration. You bring in as many as you’re missing. Hungarians think differently. We don’t need numbers, we need Hungarian children.”
