Balázs Orbán, the prime minister's political director, said strong families are key to a strong country.

Orbán made that admission during a conference titled Family formation and the future - the geopolitical, cultural and legal dimensions of demographic change, organized by the Danube Institute on Wednesday.

"Family is the foundation of society, and Hungary's government will do everything in its power to support those wanting to raise a family, and those who already have one," Orbán said on the second day of the conference on Wednesday, adding that the government "sees mothers as partners in that effort".

Liberal values had led to the weakening of families and so to that of societies", Orbán said. "They only way to restore national values is to return to traditional values, to strengthen local communities and revive patriotism," he said.

Perspectives are changing in the West, too, Orbán said.

Regarding migration, Orbán said liberal migration policy had led to "growing crime rates and intra-societal tensions". Hungary had spent some 2 billion forints (EUR 5m) on border protection and built a fence, "and now we have to pay a million euros a day just because we are protecting our borders," he said.

Meanwhile, "by weakening family values, the Western world is weakening itself and paying the price in falling birth rates," he said.

Hungary, on the other hand, had built its "whole politics and economy on families", he said.

Family support would include strengthening rural communities and infrastructure "so those wanting to live there suffer no disadvantages", Orbán said.

He said he hoped that the Hungarian example would prove useful in other countries.