![]() Globally, a fairly robust law has long linked national wealth and birth rates: as countries become richer, birth rates fall. And the second is that women are often not opposed to having children they are having fewer than they say they want, mostly for economic reasons. The first is that the most staunchly feminist countries, those in northern Europe, now have some of the continent’s highest birth rates. But this narrative ignores two crucial facts. In the worldview of the new right, feminism has given rise to generations of women who would rather work and play than raise children. They include an increase in child benefits for the first child and for families with more than three children a modest extension of maternity leave reductions in the VAT on baby-care products and changes in the pensionable age so that the more children a woman has, the earlier she will be able to retire. ![]() The budget for next year nevertheless includes some changes that the finance minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, has suggested are just the beginning. “Support for the birth rate and the family” was top of a list of 15 policy objectives in its electoral manifesto.Ĭonstrained by Italy’s huge gross public debt, of around 147% of GDP, Ms Meloni’s government has so far had limited scope for realising its aims. The encouragement to Italians to multiply flows in part from the party’s opposition to unauthorised immigration. Few have put such emphasis on the birth rate as the Brothers of Italy, the hard-right party whose leader, Giorgia Meloni, is the country’s new prime minister. So they are keen to find ways to persuade native-born women to have bigger families. ![]() Only the first of these options appeals to Europe’s right-wing populists.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |