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Episode details

Radio 4,12 Feb 2019,18 mins

Is it ok to pay women to have more children?

Beyond Today

Available for over a year

Hungarian women with four or more children won’t have to pay income tax for the rest of their working lives, according to a plan announced by the country’s prime minister Viktor Orban. He says it’s to reverse Hungary’s falling population rate, critics argue it’s a way of controlling immigration. We speak to the BBC’s Nick Thorpe, who lives and works in Budapest with his 5 children. And we also hear from author Thomas Chatterton Williams who is writing a book on racial identity, about what links this Hungarian policy to the global far right. Producers: Philly Beaumont & Georgia Coan Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

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