‘The village will die’ – Italy looks for answers to decline in number of babies

Giacomo De Luca refers to the narrow main street in its northern Italian city, and refers to companies that have been closed: supermarkets, the Salaine Salon, and restaurants – all of this with drawn shutters and faded over its doors.

The beautiful city of Fregona is at the foot of the mountains like a lot here, as the Italians have fewer children and are increasingly migrating to larger places or moving abroad.

Now the local primary school is at risk and the mayor is anxious.

“The New Year cannot go ahead because there are only four children. They want to close it,” explains de Luca. The minimum semester to obtain financing is 10 children.

“The decrease in births and in the population was very sharp.”

The mayor calculates that the residents of Fregona, an hour drive to the north of Venice, have shrunk by about five in the past decade.

By June of this year, there were only four new births and most of the 2700 populations or so are the elderly men who drink the morning prostas to women whose bags are folded by Al -Qidoun and Tomatoes in the weekly market.

For De Luca, the closing of the school reception will be the tide: if the children leave Fregona to study, it is afraid that they will never look back.

So he was touring the surrounding area, and even visiting a nearby pizza factory, in an attempt to persuade parents to send their children to his city and help keep the school open.

The mayor told the BBC, his feeling of clear urgency: “I offer them to receive them with a small bus. We offered children to stay at school until six o’clock in the evening, and they all pay it by the council.

“I am worried. Little by little, if things continue this way, the village will die.”

The demographic crisis in Italy extends beyond Fregona and is deepening.

Over the past decade, the country has contracted about 1.9 million, and the number of births has decreased for 16 consecutive years.

On average, Italian women now have 1.18 children, the lowest level has ever registered. This is under the average fertility rate in the European Union 1.38 and much less than 2.1 needed to maintain the population.

Despite its efforts to encourage birth, and a lot of talking about the family’s friendly policy, the right -wing GDP Melonian government was unable to stop the slide.

“You have to think a lot before you have a child,” Valentina Dotor admits when we meet in the main square of Freejona, her 10 -month -old Delita daughter in a small chair.

Valentina gets about 200 euros (175 pounds) monthly for the first year for Diletta, but he just lost the new child’s reward for the government of 1,000 euros for children born in 2025.

There are also new tax exemptions, and the longer vacations of parents.

But Valentina now needs to return to work and says access to childcare at reasonable prices is still very difficult.

“There are not many children, but not many children [places] As you say. “I am lucky because my grandmother carefully takes care of my daughter. If not, I do not know where I will leave her.”

For this reason, her friends are concerned about motherhood.

“It is difficult – because of work, schools and money,” says Valentina. “There is some help, but it is not enough to have children.

“The problem will not solve.”

Some companies in the Veneto region took things with their hands.

Located in car to the valley from Fregona is a large industrial property full of small and medium -sized companies, which are managed by families.

IRINOX, a manufacturer for a cold explosion, monitored the problem of paternity and motherhood for a long time and decided to act instead of losing precious workers.

The company joined seven others to create a short distance from the factory hall – not free, but it is very reduced and comfortable. It was the first of its kind in Italy.

“Knowing that I have the opportunity to put my son two minutes away from here it was very important, because I can reach him at any time, very quickly,” one of the company’s financing heads, Melania Sandrin, explained.

Without stones, she would have been struggling to return to work: she did not want to rely on her parents, nor would he take the kindergarten children’s kindergarten for a whole day.

“There is also a priority list … and there are a few places,” Melania says.

Like Valentina, she and her friends were late to have children in the late thirties, and they were keen to create their career, and Melania is not sure that she has a second child, so far. “This is not easy,” she says.

The birth is later, which is an increasing trend here, is another factor in lowering fertility.

All this is why CEO Katia da Rose believes that Italy needs “tremendous changes” to address the population problem.

“It is not the costs of 1000 euros that make a difference, but it has services like free kindergarten. If we want to change the situation, we need a strong procedure,” she says.

Another solution is to increase migration, which is more controversial for Meloni’s government.

More than 40 % of Airinox workers already from the outside.

A map on the wall of the folded plant appears to come from Mongolia to Burkina Faso. With the exception of an unlikely sudden increase in childbirth, Katia da Ross says that Italy – like Veneto – will need more foreign workers to lead its economy.

“The future will be like this.”

Even immigration was unable to save a school in the nearby Tiffiso.

Last month, Pascoli Primary closed its doors forever because there was not enough students to preserve them.

Only 27 children gathered on the school’s steps to attend a final ceremony that distinguishes the alpine trumpet with a feather in its hat, which appeared to participate with the Italian flag.

“It is a sad day,” Elanora Franceshey, who gathered her 8 -year -old daughter, gathered her 8 -year -old daughter. From September, she will have to travel to a different school.

Elianora does not believe that the birth fall alone is the official: it says that the Basquouli School was not studied in the afternoon, which makes life more difficult for the working parents who transported their children elsewhere.

The teacher has another explanation.

“This region has turned because many people from abroad came here,” Luan Skrave told the BBC, referring to two decades of immigration to the Veneto region with multiple factories and many jobs.

“some [families] Then I decided to go to other schools where the immigration index was less high. “

“Over the years, we had less and minimum people who decided to come to this school,” says the principal, in English, hinting on tensions.

The United Nations predicts that the population of Italy will decrease by about five million in the next 25 years, from 59 million. It is also aging, which increases the pressure on the economy.

Government measures to address that have scratched the surface so far.

But Eleanura says that parents like her need more help, not just cash bulletins, for a start.

“We get monthly checks, but we also need practical support, such as free summer camps for children,” she says, noting that the three -month -old school holidays that could be a nightmare for parents who work.

“The government wants more population, but at the same time, they don’t help,” says Elianora.

“How can we have more children in this position?”

It was produced by David Gilion.