Interview | Balázs Hankó

Balázs Hankó is a member of the Hungarian Parliament, a pharmacist, a professor and a former vice-rector of Semmelweis University. Between July 2024 and May 2026 he was Minister for Culture and Innovation in Viktor Orbán’s government. His portfolio took in the family policy behind the so-called “Hungarian miracle”, the demographic turnaround thanks to which you still see more babies than dogs in Budapest and which, in figures, lifted the fertility rate from 1. 23 children per woman to 1. 59, doubled marriages from 35,520 to more than 72,000, and sent abortions tumbling from 40,449 to fewer than 22,000.