Foreign Affairs

Italy’s Interior Minister: ‘Without Children There’s No Future’ In Response To Country’s Declining Birth Rate

No featured image available

Italy’s new interior minister said that “without children, there’s no future” in regard to his country’s declining birth rate, in a tweet Thursday.

Matteo Salvini, the new interior minister from the nationalistic “Lega Nord” party, stressed the importance of Italian families to have children in response to Italy’s low birth rate, he tweeted. Italy’s birthrate in 2017 was approximately 460,000 births, a two percent drop since 2016, and an all-time low for the European country, according to Istat results. (RELATED: Italy’s New Prime Minister Stresses Eurosceptic Ideas In First Speech To Parliament)

“Without children, there’s no future. Helping moms and dads will be one of our first commitments,” Salvini tweeted, linking to Ansa.it. (RELATED: Italy’s New Interior Minister Demands Boat Carrying Migrants To Turn Around)

Senza figli non c’è futuro. Aiutare mamme e papà sarà uno dei nostri primi impegni. https://t.co/t8gvJ3mHgV

— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) June 14, 2018

The figures also demonstrated that Italy has an aging population. Italy’s population ages 65 and over was at 22.6 percent, population ages 15 to 64 was at 64.1 percent, and population under 15 was 13.4 percent. Italy’s mean age for 2018 was 45 years old. (RELATED: Bizarre Ad Begs Polish Citizens To Breed Like Rabbits [VIDEO])

Salvini became interior minister of Italy on June 1. Since his short time in office, he has taken a conservative approach to politics by cracking down on illegal immigration and planning on strengthening borders. He caused controversy with other European countries by refusing to allow the Aquarius ship carrying 629 migrants to dock in Italy on Monday.