"I don't know of any of my friends who had kids after they saw an
advertisement," Matteo Renzi said in a radio interview.
He was speaking a day after the ministry announced it would host
meetings in four cities to encourage couples to have children. Italy
has an aging population and the fertility rate in Italy last year
was 1.35 children per woman, compared with an EU average of 1.6.
In 2015, fewer babies were born in Italy than in any year since the
modern state was founded 154 years ago, and the population shrank
for the first time in three decades.
"If you want to create a society that invests in its future and has
children, you have to make sure the underlying conditions are
there," such as making sure the parents have stable jobs and
day-care services, Renzi said.
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Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin launched the campaign on Wednesday
with the @FertilityDay Twitter handle and a series of online ads.
One pictured a woman holding an hourglass next to the words: "Beauty
has no age limit. Fertility does." Another pictured a man holding a
half-burned cigarette. "Don't let your sperm go up in smoke," it
said.
The Fertility Day campaign also set off criticism on social media
for appearing to blame women for putting off child-bearing, and for
appearing not to understand the real causes for Italy's low birth
rate.
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"Before bringing children into the world, women responsibly consider
the future," lawmakers from the opposition 5-Star Movement said in a
statement. "There's no work. People aren't having kids because it's
not possible."
Lorenzin is a member of a centrist bloc, considered close to the
Catholic Church, that is allied with Renzi's Democratic Party.
The cities of Rome, Padua, Bologna and Catania will hold public
meetings on Sept. 22 - or Fertility Day - where "Fertility Villages"
will be set up to host experts, associations and scientific
companies who will offer advice and screening.
(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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