Good morning.
Thanks to Minister Roccella for her determination in organising this conference dedicated to demography. This was not a given, as is the case with many other things we are doing; I sincerely believe that this conference initiative, bringing together so many influential figures to discuss this issue, is very important indeed. I also believe it is very important to involve the necessary key players in this debate: certainly the European Union, represented here today by Commission Vice-President Šuica and Commissioner Dalli, whom I of course wish to thank for their very important participation; then there are also representatives from Italy’s Government, Regions and Municipalities in attendance, as well as the OECD, foundations, and, of course, renowned experts in this field, whom I wish to greet and thank and who play a particularly important role in understanding which instruments can and must be considered the best, in concrete terms, in order to tackle this issue.
I believe today’s conference is extremely important as it gives us a wider perspective on an issue that everyone knows is a top priority for this Government. In our view, the demographic challenge, the birth rate and economic sustainability, which is linked to these factors, are one of the most important challenges, quite simply because we do not want to settle for managing the present: there is no point managing the present if we do not also secure the future.
This is the fundamental issue that concerns a Government’s responsibility to guarantee a future for its nation. I am proud of this, as I believe that what the Government is doing and its approach in addressing these issues represents a fundamental step change with respect to the past. I think it was about time Italy had a Government brave enough to address demography and the birth rate as priority challenges that need to be dealt with across the board regarding all the Government’s actions.
It was about time there was a Government brave enough to say: we can introduce the best reforms possible for Italy, we can invest resources, we can make important choices. However, all of this will be for nothing unless we can reverse the dramatic downward trend in the birth rate that is undermining our nation’s positive development potential, and this is not just the case for our nation.
This was not the case for a long time before we came to office; Italy seemed to be falling, let’s say, into the quicksand that is the ‘myth’ surrounding a falling birth rate, which was talked about as if it somehow symbolised freedom and a cultural approach that was generally hostile to the family (we have to say it like it is).
Clearly, there are not just cultural factors at the root of this problem; there are many economic and social factors too. The younger generations are scared about the future, which is a future of uncertain employment prospects and job insecurity. People tend to wait to have financial stability and a steady job before starting a family but, in many cases, by the time that stability arrives, if it arrives, it is too late.
This is of course why policies regarding the labour market, home-owners and support for young couples are of crucial importance and that is what this Government is working on. This morning you have already heard about many of the Government’s initiatives and the initial measures we have taken. I shan’t go over this again as I don’t want to repeat things, but I do want to reiterate that no concrete measure will ever be enough unless we reverse the narrative that has surrounded this issue in the past.
For decades, the dominant culture said that having a child was likely to be incompatible with many other choices; that having a child compromised your freedom, your career, your dreams and in some cases even your beauty; a choice that basically took something away from you or risked taking away much more than it would give you. So, in the end, a choice that was perhaps preferable not to make.
For decades, there were the affirmations of ‘bad teachers’ (sometimes in actual teaching posts) stating that parenthood was old-fashioned, an archaic concept, a patriarchal concept that needed to be overcome, or even fought, and that needed to be replaced with new values.
In recent years, it has even crazily been argued that having a child means doing something that is bad for the environment. It is more sustainable not to have children, or perhaps only to have one at the most because people and the environment are apparently enemies and, if we care about the environment, then we should give up on humans and thereby reduce the carbon footprint produced by children. I believe that these rather surreal theories, both old and new, risk dragging Italy and Europe to the brink of disaster, leading us to believe that we should pursue an ideal of ‘happy degrowth’ applied also to the birth rate. The problem is that degrowth is never ‘happy’ and, if you apply it to the birth rate and demography, it risks jeopardising any possible future and undermining the very foundations on which our welfare system is based, breaking that generational pact that nations have always needed to exist and prosper.
We could have gone along with this dominant school of thought, throwing ourselves into the abyss of a demographic ice age too; we could have surrendered to the idea that our nation is, after all, destined to disappear. Our other choice was to reiterate what we have been saying for a long time now: that decline is never a destiny. Decline is always a choice. It is a choice that can be overturned, by rolling up our sleeves and preventing that decline, rebuilding a family-friendly society that supports the birth rate. A society where being a father is not out of fashion and where being a mother does not have to be a private choice but rather a value that is recognised and supported by society, a choice to be protected, safeguarded and incentivised.
We have made our choice, which was a clear choice resulting from a clear vision: we have chosen to take on the demographic challenge and to centre our work around it. Hence why there is now a ministry dedicated to the birth rate for the first time in this nation’s history, and this is not just about the wording of its name. This is the beginning of our work: in everything the Government does, we of course want the birth rate to be talked about, but we above all want action to be taken.
Despite the now well-known budget difficulties we inherited from irresponsible governments before us, we have made very important efforts on this issue also in terms of resources. In a year and a half, this Government has already earmarked EUR 2.5 billion in direct investments for families and the birth rate, plus related structural measures. This means total net benefits for Italian families worth more than EUR 16 billion in 2024 alone. Of course, we are not the ones saying this but the Parliamentary Budget Office, which is known for being rather strict when it comes to validating measures and their impact on society.
However, as I was saying, we have at the same time been working, with courage and clarity, on the cultural aspect, and indeed are continuing to do so also through this initiative, because there is no point making resources available if society then does not have the fertile ground to make best use of them. There is therefore also a need to overturn the narrative that led to this issue not being considered a priority in the past, also to explain to citizens why we believe the trend needs to be reversed.
When you govern a nation, you always have to remember that the resources you’re managing do not belong to you but to the citizens, and, when you spend that money, you have to explain why you are spending it, what your vision is, what your goal is. This is something we try to do all the time because that is the basis on which citizens then have to decide whether or not you have done your job well.
I therefore believe that, as I was saying, the cultural aspect underlying this issue is very important. I believe that, at the root of it all, a misguided concept of freedom has been fed to us. I do not believe freedom is having to give up on having children in order to have a career, just as freedom is not about giving up a career in order to have children. Freedom is being able to do both without being afraid, knowing that society, the State and institutions will support you, because they recognise the value of the effort involved and how important that choice is for society as a whole.
This is the message we are trying to send out, this is the Italy we want to build, despite (and I am saying this with my usual frankness) all the controversy that, as we are aware, comes up (in my view incredibly) whenever we try to talk about this issue.
With regard to such a complex matter requiring so many measures, it will clearly only be possible for everyone to begin judging the results once we have completed our government programme. I do however think that we are already seeing some signs. Take employment figures for example: we have reached a record level of female employment, exceeding the mark of 10 million female workers for the first time in Italy. This is of course thanks above all to our companies and our economic system because, also in this regard, we must always remember that it is not the State that creates wealth or abolishes poverty, creating jobs with decrees: the State can create the conditions for this to happen, but it is workers who produce wealth and help us combat poverty. It is companies and their workers.
Positive signs can certainly make a difference: deciding to earmark a good deal of the few resources available in order to address this issue, especially with regard to the matter of working mothers, sending out a signal that you are therefore not forced to choose, the matter of reducing taxes for working mothers with a certain number of children, the matter of work-life balance, supporting nursery schools, free preschool care for second-born children and the work we have done with the NRRP [National Recovery and Resilience Plan] to guarantee these facilities, the matter of parental leave that we have extended in our two budget laws, adding the opportunity and the possibility to be able to look after your children also and above all if you have a job. These are all signals that send out precisely this message.
These two choices are not incompatible, these two choices do not need to be incompatible. For too long now, we have accepted that that was the way things were, but we cannot simply accept things we don’t like. We must work to overturn what we do not like and that is what we are trying to do.
Also in this regard, it must however be said that it has at times been implied that ensuring equal opportunities is somehow the same as cancelling out differences. That’s not how I see it; I think the exact opposite. I think that guaranteeing equal opportunities means making sure that men and women have the same possibility to achieve fulfilment in terms of their career, pay, aspirations and freedom, being aware of individual differences. Being a parent obviously means taking on responsibility that must be equally shared, but this cannot and must not mean cancelling out the specific nature of the mother’s and the father’s relationship. Unless we start from here, we will not find the key to seriously address and resolve this issue.
That said, we are all aware of the controversy: even only talking about ‘fathers’ and ‘mothers’ in today’s society can sometimes seem almost revolutionary. Doing so tends to make you seem rather retro, at a time when some go so far as to deny that bringing a child into the world requires a man and a woman and, when faced with the facts, they think they can resolve the matter by perhaps fuelling a transnational market that exploits the bodies of poor women and turns children into a commodity, passing this off as an act of love or an act of freedom. As you know, I am used to always saying what I think and, in my view, unreasonable things do not become reasonable just because lots of people repeat them. No one can convince me that it is an act of freedom to rent out your womb; no one can convince me that it is an act of love to consider children to be like an over-the-counter product in a supermarket. It is not an act of love to turn the legitimate, extremely legitimate, desire to have a child into a right that you can secure for yourself through any means possible. This is why I continue to believe, for example, that surrogacy is inhuman and I support the proposed law to make it a ‘universal crime’, meaning you can be prosecuted in Italy even if this is committed abroad. A parliamentary proposal on this is being discussed by our Parliament and I hope it will be approved as soon as possible.
Allow me to also say something else regarding the controversial stories I sometimes read in the national press, and also in the international press. I would like to take this opportunity to dispel another myth and another skewed narrative. In Italy, and this is something that has been certified by the court system at all levels, as well as by the European Court of Human Rights, there is not a single child who is not guaranteed full rights, because this is provided for in our Constitution and so, quite simply, it could not be otherwise. We want to continue guaranteeing those rights, we want to move forward and guarantee also the fundamental right to an origin, an identity, a family.
Now, however, the challenge of a declining birth rate is not something that is only affecting us here in Italy; it is a major challenge for Europe as a whole because declining birth rates are a European problem, not just a European problem but certainly a European problem, certainly a western problem. There is unfortunately not a single European nation that reaches the so-called replacement rate, i.e., the number of children per woman needed to guarantee population continuity. This is why I am particularly honoured to welcome the representatives of the European Commission here today, because Italy can certainly do a lot, but I also think Europe can do a lot too.
Now that European elections are drawing closer and there is finally a debate involving all of us about what hasn’t worked, what must be done better, what needs to change, what are the challenges Europe must focus on in an international context that is far from simple, this issue needs to be addressed in good time and also on the basis of past experience, Vice-President, in order to understand what more can be done to support European nations with regard to a subject that underlies so many of the other issues we are facing.
We are of course aware that Italy, let’s say, is one of the nations that has fallen significantly behind in this regard, but I think it is clear to see how determined this Government is to focus precisely on the issue of demography, as indeed it is doing. We are coming up with solutions and gradually implementing them, but clearly if the old continent does not want to be, let’s say, historically labelled as such and does not want to become an old continent in the future, then it needs to give serious, concrete and determined responses.
It is clearly our hope but it is also our commitment to work in this direction, because this concerns Europe’s soul, its identity and the very purpose of its existence and, in much more concrete terms, it is also about balancing the budget, which is something we have been discussing at European level for a very long time now and something that Europe always pays a great deal of attention to, because if it is true that declining birth rates cause intangible consequences, it is also true that they have huge implications for the sustainability of social spending, the organisation of services, support for vulnerable people and labour market resilience. In other words, if we do not restore the balance between the working population and the members of the population requiring assistance, then quite simply it will be our own public finance systems that will become unsustainable in just a few years’ time.
Hence why I believe that public spending to support the birth rate, to support services, help for families and the work-life balance, can and must be considered a productive investment, more than any other areas of spending, because it is an investment in the very resilience of our social system. And when I say our social system I also mean our civilisation, because we are globally recognised for the ability we had to build the welfare system we boast today, but we will not have other instruments to maintain that welfare system unless we make the investments we can.
I therefore think that, sooner or later, Europe as a whole must ask itself, for example, how investments in the birth rate should be considered; there is great debate on how to consider spending. Also in this regard, we have always said to ourselves that the issue is not simply spending or not spending resources, the issue is what you spend resources on and what kind of multiplier effect each kind of spending has. Current spending and investments are not the same thing and do not give the same multiplier effect over the medium term, and this is something we must always bear in mind. In this case we are talking about ‘good’ expenditure: an investment with a very high multiplier effect, and so it cannot be considered in the same way as many other spending items in our budgets.
It will be increasingly difficult to ensure balance for a financial year, or over a given four-year period, if the entire system becomes unsustainable or, in other words, if we don’t dedicate ourselves to that ‘next generation’ that formed the basis for post-pandemic recovery programmes, looking precisely to the future generations. You can look to the future generations if the future generations exist, otherwise we can use whatever name we like but we won’t get the result we want.
I mentioned the elections and the debate surrounding the elections. I can say that, in the Italian Government’s view, one of the great revolutions that tomorrow’s Europe must ensure regards precisely this: finally providing strong and determined support to tackle the demographic challenge with concrete instruments. We have already proposed this and will do so even more strongly in the next parliamentary term.
We clearly wouldn’t be able to do this unless we first set a good example here too. Minister Roccella and Minister Fitto who spoke before me have had the chance to explain our approach to these issues, the work we are doing, our concrete measures and how we are trying to use also the European resources we have available (from the NRRP resources through to cohesion funds) in the best way possible, precisely in order to set a good example. These resources are very important and are key for Italy, but have not always been used in full or in the best way possible; they have not always been focused on the strategic measures they are meant for.
Also in this regard, we think that supporting the birth rate, especially in areas with a higher rate of depopulation, is strategic and resources need to be focused on this. Many of these resources can be focused on these goals. Cohesion funds are the best example of resources addressing regional disparities, therefore concerning the areas at greatest risk of depopulation. These two things can go together if we manage to focus and spend those resources well. This is something we did, for example, when we dealt with the nursery school plan: a EUR 3 billion investment that was also kept after the revision of our NRRP and will enable us to create 2,600 nursery schools.
However, I believe it is also important to work to use other sources of funding. I am thinking of the European Social Fund Plus, together with the Recovery and Resilience Facility; other entities, other funds, other instruments that could provide key resources to address the demographic challenge.
In conclusion, we are here and are ready to spend our energy at international level, so anyone interested in this subject should know that they can always call the Italian Government to ask for help on this, simply because, if we don’t do this, ladies and gentlemen, everything else we work so hard to achieve every day will at the most get us some immediate support, will at the most allow us to ‘get by’ for the next few months, perhaps even a whole term, but I think that any serious politician with a conscience cannot govern their people and their nation unless they also ask themselves what they will be leaving behind, unless they also ask themselves whether, towards the end of this path (let’s hope in many years’ time), they will be able to look back and also look at themselves in the mirror and be proud of the work they have done.
I believe this is one of those issues that establishes whether or not you are able to do politics as I understand politics. This is therefore an issue we are very focused on, because our past depends on it, as this will only live on for as long as there are children who parents and grandparents can pass their culture and traditions on to; our present depends on it, as a young population means innovation, employment, energy and inventiveness; and clearly our future depends on it, as without children that future simply won’t exist.
You can count on us.
Thank you and I wish you all the best with your work.
[Courtesy translation]
