Nationalist Orban, in power since 2010, has launched tax breaks, housing support schemes and cheap loans worth some 5% of economic output per year for newly weds to arrest Hungary’s demographic decline, while strongly opposing immigration.
The measures have fuelled a boom in recent years that has lifted Hungary to the top of the European Union matrimony table at 6.9 weddings per 1,000 people in 2020 based on Eurostat figures, the latest comparable statistics.
The impact was so strong that sociologists say Hungary was the only country in the world where the number of weddings did not fall during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
But the situation appears to be changing with Hungary now projected to run the EU’s highest average inflation rate at 16.4% this year amid surging food, power and services prices, driving up the cost of nuptials and eroding the value of Orban’s support measures.
In January the number of weddings recorded in Hungary fell to 1,230,…
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