Hungary has helped more than two million persecuted Christians through a government-funded aid scheme, according to a prominent Hungarian politician.

Tristan Azbej, the State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians, a position within Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced that the aid was administered through the Hungary Helps program launched in 2017.

He made the announcement during a recent visit to the United States, where he also met with leaders from various Christian diaspora groups from Eastern Europe during visits in Chicago and other Midwestern areas. He also met with Chaldean Catholics from Iraq, who expressed gratitude for Hungary’s efforts in reconstructing a Chaldean Catholic settlement on the Nineveh Plain.

In recent years, Hungary has stood out as a country publicly concerned with the plight of Christians. The Fidesz party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, governs in coalition with the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP). While Fidesz has championed Christian values and promoted a strong sense of cultural Christianity, the KDNP goes further, defining itself within the parameters of Christian ethics, including a pro-life stance, emphasis on traditional family values and support for religious institutions.

At the 2017 International Consultation on Christian Persecution held in Budapest, Orbán acknowledged that the “persecution of Christians in Europe operates with sophisticated and refined methods of an intellectual nature”, which is “unfair” and “discriminatory”. Though he noted that this persecution “cannot be compared to the brutal physical persecution which our Christian brothers and sisters have to endure in Africa and the Middle East”.

On the domestic front, Hungary has introduced a wave of pro-Christian policies. The 2011 Fundamental Law of Hungary recognizes “the role of Christianity in preserving the nation”, with a 2018 amendment further emphasizing the protection of Hungary’s “constitutional identity and Christian culture”.

Alongside this, financial incentives have been introduced to encourage families, one of the most notable being an income tax exemption for mothers with four or more children, and which lasts for life. This has contributed to Hungary being one of the few Western countries to see significant improvements in its birth rate, which reached a 25-year high in 2021.