Conservative Policies Failing Demographic Challenges

There has been a steady demographic pattern in Poland and Hungary for the last several decades: their populations are shrinking. Both Fidesz and PiS believe promoting traditional values and restricting reproductive rights would lead to an increase in the birth rates, but time has shown this could not be further from the truth.

As countries in Central and Eastern Europe are entering a phase of the demographic cycle characterised by low fertility rates and longer life expectancy, their leaders are becoming increasingly preoccupied with families and the number of children they decide to have.

For the conservative leaders of Hungary and Poland – who like to present their countries as bastions of traditional values and European heritage while contrasting them against the decadent, multicultural Western Europe – the fact that their countries are following the same demographic pattern is particularly unsettling.

Demographic Woes

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that encouraging procreation is one of the Fidesz and Law and Justice governments’ shared goals, or to paraphrase Viktor Orbán’s expression, “helping Hungarians and Poles have as many children as they want.”. But the demographic approach by the ruling conservative parties in Poland and Hungary dictates that family policies are guided by particular visions of the nations rather than the actual needs of the populations.