Relations between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Pope Francis are generally regarded as rather tense. However, the two found common ground on the burning issue of Italy’s birth rate during the Stati generali della natalità (General State of Natality), which took place in Rome on Friday, May 12th.
The main point of friction between the two is immigration, with Meloni advocating firmness and control of borders and Pope Francis advocating pro-migrant positions. However, both agree on the issue of the birth rate crisis in Italy—a priority now shared by the entire Italian political class.
The question of birth rate is indeed particularly alarming for Italians, even more so than for their European neighbours. Between 2008 and 2022, births in Italy fell by 68%. If the decline in the Italian birth rate continues, there will soon be two deaths for every birth in Italy. In ten years, the country has lost 1.5 million people.
Based on an initiative by Gianluigi De Palo, head of the Foundation for Natality, this was the third edition of The General State of Natality. De Palo hopes to alert the population to the urgency of the situation. His wish is for Italy to, by 2030, return to the pre-2014 level of 500,000 births per year. In 2022, Italy recorded only 393,000 births.
In her speech, Giorgia Meloni recalled the first measures put in place by her government to try to halt the collapse. While her predecessor Mario Draghi is credited with introducing family allowances in 2021—which until then simply did not exist in Italy—Meloni highlighted the creation of a new ministry “for the family, birth rate and equal opportunities.” Tax incentives for families were also introduced. With some lyricism, Meloni reminded the audience that the love of Italy’s past greatness should drive the need to give her country a future, by starting families. The discourse of natality in Italy is always suspected of being associated with fascist ideology, which is why the Italian political class has difficulty appropriating it. For Meloni, the problem is not only financial but ideological. The family gets bad press, and it is, therefore, necessary to “reverse the trend” against the “dominant culture.” Motherhood and fatherhood should be “private choices” and “socially recognised values.”
This observation is shared by Pope Francis, who also denounced “a culture that is unfriendly, if not an enemy, of the family.” He is taking part in this conference for the second year running. This year, he emphatically condemned the reign of individualism and solitary enjoyment, which are in essence enemies of the family. “We cannot passively accept that so many young people find it so difficult to realise their dream of founding a family and settle for mediocre substitutes: making money, aiming for a career, travelling, jealously guarding their free time,” he exclaimed.
During his speech, Pope Francis told an anecdote that revealed his state of mind. He explained how a devout woman had asked him to “bless her baby.” He was surprised to discover that the “baby” in question was in fact … a small dog. Faced with this unexpected request, the Pontiff got carried away. “I didn’t have the patience, and I scolded the lady. Many children are hungry and she shows up with a dog!” he explained. He then lamented that many young Italians today, like that woman, prefer to surround themselves with pets rather than have children—a “habit of the future,” in his words, that tends to be widespread, and one that worries him deeply.
