Katalin Novák met the U.S. billionaire at the Tesla manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas, on Monday
Hungarian President Katalin Novák labeled U.S. billionaire Elon Musk an “ally” in family policy and peace, following their meeting in Texas on Monday during which the ongoing war in Ukraine and the promotion of family-centered policies were discussed.
The pair met at Tesla’s manufacturing plant in the city of Austin, where the Western world’s demographic crisis was at the forefront of the agenda.
Commenting on the meeting in a Facebook post, Hungary’s head of state hailed Musk as a welcome ally of the Hungarian government’s fight for the freedom of families. The government of Viktor Orbán has committed to a social program designed to increase the country’s birth rate and to stop the decline of the Hungarian population.
Childlessness is the most worrying phenomenon of our time. We talked with @elonmusk about what we can do together to encourage young people to say YES to #children.#havingchildrenissavingtheworld pic.twitter.com/7x2ZqVMbSa
— Katalin Novák (@KatalinNovak_HU) September 26, 2023
“Outside Hungary, more and more people see that the demographic ice age, which was welcomed in the West, threatens the end of the world as we know it. Our country was the first to place family at the center of the demographic struggle. We talked with Elon Musk about what we can do together to make young people dare to say yes to children,” Novák said.
She referred to childlessness as “the most worrying phenomenon of our age” and lamented the fact that the issue is not as widely publicized by the liberal mainstream media as more popular debates such as climate change.
“Elon Musk has become a new ally of us in the fight for freedom of families, who knows and appreciates Hungary’s family-centered program,” the Hungarian president added.
Having children is saving the world
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 25, 2023
Musk has long been aligned with the family policies promoted by the Orbán administration in Budapest, having raised similar concerns about the impending demographic crisis sweeping the Western world.
“Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in July last year.
“Far too many people are under the illusion that Earth is overpopulated, even though birth rate trends are so obviously headed to population collapse,” he added.
However, family-based policy isn’t the only issue that Musk and the Hungarian government agree on. The pair also discussed at length the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the need to push for peace at the earliest opportunity.
🇭🇺 #Hungary is one of the first bastions of pro-family forces. It was good to hear that @elonmusk also knows and acknowledges Hungary's family-oriented program. pic.twitter.com/YKdt5Fo056
— Katalin Novák (@KatalinNovak_HU) September 26, 2023
Novák revealed that Musk agreed with Budapest’s position that “an immediate ceasefire and lasting peace is needed.” She also expressed her gratitude to the U.S. businessman for understanding the concerns of the Transcarpathian Hungarian minority living in Ukraine, who Hungary believes has been subject to unprecedented persecution by the Ukrainian state.
Like Hungary, Musk has deviated from the mainstream position on Ukraine advocated by the majority of NATO allies, who continue to arm Kyiv to the hilt, a move that critics believe is simply prolonging the conflict and resulting in unnecessary fatalities.
The U.S. billionaire suffered the wrath of Kyiv last year after posting a suggested peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, which included the formal annexation of Crimea by Russia and the holding of U.N.-supervised referenda in the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
