Novak pledges to work for family support, values

She said she hoped Hungarian families would be able to “concentrate on their love for each other at least in these few days”, amid the economic fallout of the war that came hard on the heels of the two-year coronavirus pandemic.

On her recent trip to Kyiv, Novak said President Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation was to an event promoting the export of Ukrainian grain to hunger-stricken African communities. She accepted the invitation because “Hungary could get behind that goal”, she said.

Besides a humanitarian campaign, Hungary also wanted to express its solidarity with a neighbouring country attacked by its own neighbour, she said.

At meetings with Ukrainian leaders, Novak said she also advocated for ethnic Hungarian minorities living in the country, and spent the first Advent Sunday with Transcarpathia Hungarians.

Responding to a question on the teachers’ strikes in Hungary, Novak said “we can’t honour enough those entrusted with the education of our children”.  Parents and teachers are key to “the sort of adults our children will become,” she said.

She called for creating the framework for the “moral and financial appreciation” of teachers, “regardless of economic difficulties and EU resources”.