“The village will die” – Italy seeks answers to a decrease in the number of babies

Turning the narrow main street of its northern Italian city, the jacam -da -Lukashenko points to the enterprises that closed: two supermarkets, hairdressers, restaurants -all of the shutters, painted and faded signs over the door.

The pretty city of Frego at the foot of the mountain will start, as many, because the Italians are less and more and more migrating to big places or moving abroad.

Now the local elementary school is at risk, and the mayor are worried.

“The New Year can’t go forward because there are only four children. They want to close it,” De Luke explains. The minimum class size for financing is 10 children.

“The fall in childbirth and the population was very, very sharp.”

The mayor estimates that the Fregons population, an hour north of Venice, has decreased almost in the last decades.

By June this year, there were only four new births, and most of the 2,700 residents who remained elderly from men who drink morning shit, to women who fill the chicory and tomato bags on the weekly market.

For de bow, the closure of the school admission would be a hill: if the children leave the Fregon to study, he is afraid that they will never look back.

So he toured the neighborhood, even visiting the Pizza neighboring factory, trying to convince his parents to send children to his city and help keep the school open.

“I suggest picking them from a minibus.

“I’m worried. Little, when things go, the village will die.”

The demographic crisis of Italy goes far beyond the Fregons, and this deepens.

Over the last decade, the population across the country has decreased by almost 1.9 million, and the number of birth has decreased by 16 years.

On average, Italian women now only have 1.18 babies, the lowest level is recorded. This is within the average birth rate of the EU 1.38 and is much below 2.1 required to maintain the population.

Despite its efforts to encourage childbirth and a lot of conversations about family policy, the right government of Georgia Meloni was unable to stop the slides.

“You have to think a lot before having a baby,” admits Valentina Dotar when we meet on the main square of Freegons, her 10-month-old daughter Kuo, who deals with Kala.

Valentine receives assistance in the amount of about 200 euros (£ 175) per month for the first year, but just missed a new child in a government of 1000 euros for children born in 2025.

There are also new tax benefits and a longer parental vacation.

But Valentine now has to return to work and says that access to affordable childcare is still very tough.

“Not many children, but not many kindergarten (places),” she says. “I was lucky that my grandmother took care of my daughter. If not, I don’t know where I would leave her.”

That’s why her friends are wary of motherhood.

“It is difficult – out of work, schools, money,” says Valentina. “There is some help, but it is not enough to give birth to babies.

“It doesn’t solve the problem.”

Some companies in the Veneto region have taken their hands.

Within a few minutes, the Fregon Valley is a large industrial real estate, filled with small and medium-sized companies that manage many families.

Irinox, a refrigerator explosion manufacturer, has long noticed the problem of upbringing and decided to act, not to lose valuable workers.

The firm combined its efforts with seven others to create the edges a few minutes away from the plant – not free, but greatly reduced and convenient. It was the first of its kind in Italy.

“Knowing that I had the opportunity to put my son two minutes from here was very important because I can contact him at any time, very quickly,” explains one of the financial chiefs of the company, Melania Sandrin.

Without the edge, she would have returned to work: she did not want to rely on her own parents, and state kindergartens would not usually take children all day.

“There is also a list of priorities … And there are few places,” says Melania.

Like Valentina, she and her friends dragged her children in the late 30s, trying to create her career, and Melania is not sure that she will have a second child even now. “It’s not easy,” she says.

Later, the birth that grows here is another birth rate.

This is why Caty’s CEO to Ross believes that Italy should make “massive changes” to solve the problem of the population.

“These are not payments of 1000 euros, but the availability of services such as free kindergartens. If we want to change the situation, we need strong measures,” she says.

The second decision is to increase immigration, which is much more controversial to the Meloni government.

More than 40% of workers in Irinox are already from the border.

The map at the wall plant, strewn with pins, shows that they come from Mongolia to Burkin -fos. Catia to Ross, according to Italy – as Veneto, will need more foreign workers, Katya to Ross claims that Italy – as Veneto – will need more foreign workers.

“The future will be like that.”

Even immigration could not save the school in nearby Travis.

Last month, the main jump forever closed its doors because there were enough students.

Only 27 children gathered on the school steps for the final ceremony marked by the alpine bull with a pen in a hat, which sounded in the last position when the Italian flag was lowered.

“It’s a sad day,” Eleanor Francesha said, for the last time collecting her 8-year-old daughter. From September, she will have to travel much further to another school.

Eleanor does not think that the fall is born: she says that the school does not teach in the afternoon, which complicates the lives of their parents who then moved their children to another place.

The director has another explanation.

“The area has been transformed because many people came here from the border,” Luan Cortee to the BBC, citing two decades of migration to the Veneto region with several factories and a lot of jobs.

“Some (families) decided to go to other schools where the immigration index was less high.”

“For many years we had lower and lower people who decided to come to this school,” the director says in English, hinting at tension.

The UN forecasting believes that the Italian population will decrease by 59 million in the next 25 years. It is also aging, increasing the tension on the economy.

Government measures to combat the fact that the surface has only scratched.

But Eleanor claims that parents similar to her need much more assistance, not just monetary materials, for starters.

“We receive monthly checks, but we also need practical support as free summer camps for children,” she says, pointing to a three-month school holiday from June, which can become a nightmare for parents working.

“The government wants a more population, but at the same time they do not help,” Eleanor says.

“How can we have more babies in this situation?”

Producer David Guillon.