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OPINION - ITALY'S SOUTH

BABY

‘Forget the baby bonus, we need investment’

With births in southern Italy at their lowest rate in over 150 years, The Local spoke to the head of a development organization about what needs to be done to help Italians have a family.

Published: 31 October 2014 13:34 CET
'Forget the baby bonus, we need investment'
Naples, in Italy's southern Campania region. Naples photo: Shutterstock

For the second year in a row, there were more deaths than births in Italy's impoverished south.

Some 177,000 babies were born in the south last year – the lowest rate since 1861, the year Italy was unified – figures from the Association for the Industrial Development of Southern Italy (Svimez) show.

Adriano Giannola, president of the association, said the lack of newborns is the result of the “abandonment of the south”.

“The choice of austerity has, above all, hit the south: politics is all about bookkeeping rather than being a strategy for development,” he tells The Local.

Facing youth unemployment of over 40 percent, young southerners are heading north for work and “only the old people remain”, Gianolla added.

While birth rates elsewhere in the country are being boosted by the immigrant population, he said few foreigners go to southern Italy.

In an attempt to help low-income families, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi earlier this month promised an €80-a-month bonus for parents of newborns.

But Giannola described the move as a political “accessory” which will do little to increase the birth rate if not coupled with other measures.

“The problem is one of investment, not giving €80 a head,” he said.

Southern Italy has for years been blighted by poverty; half the number of families there survived on a monthly income of around €1,663 in 2012, according to figures on Thursday from the national statistics agency, Istat.

A total of 46.2 percent of people in the south face poverty or social exclusion, more than double the figure for the central and northern regions.

Facing such a stark reality – described as a “dramatic emergency” by Giannola – it is of little surprise that few couples are choosing to have a family.

“It’s a very serious problem, one which calls for a great effort to reflect and make decisions,” he said.

Giannola argued that the government must urgently address the situation in southern Italy and devise investment and development plans.

“It’s possible to do things, but they must do them, and with politics of energy and regeneration,” he said, rejecting the “slogans” of the Renzi government.  

READ MORE: Births in Southern Italy at lowest rate since 1861

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GOVERNMENT

Was Norway ill prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic?

A report from a Norwegian commission appointed to assess the country’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic has concluded that while the government handled the situation well, it was poorly prepared for the crisis.

Published: 14 April 2021 17:11 CEST
Was Norway ill prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic?
Photo by Eirik Skarstein on Unsplash

The 450-page report was submitted to Prime Minister Erna Solberg by medical professor Stener Kvinnsland, who led the review.

The commission found that, generally, Norway had handled the pandemic well compared to the rest of Europe. That was in part due to citizens taking infection control measures on board.

“After a year of pandemic, Norway is among the countries in Europe with the lowest mortality and lowest economic impact. The authorities could not have succeeded if the population had not supported the infection control measures;” the report states.

However, the commission’s report also outlined that Norway did not properly prepare itself for the pandemic.

“The authorities knew that a pandemic was the most likely national crisis to have the most negative consequences. Nevertheless, they were not prepared when the extensive and serious Covid-19 pandemic came,” it said.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg said during an interview with the commission, conducted as part of its work, that the government did not have an infection control strategy of its own.

“We had a ‘we have to deal with a difficult situation’ strategy. We had to do everything we could to gain control and get the infection down. It was really only at the end of March (2020) that we found the more long-term strategy,” she told the commission.

Low stocks of personal protective equipment were another source of criticism in the report.

“The government knew that it would in all probability be difficult to obtain infection control equipment in the event of a pandemic. Nevertheless, the warehouses were almost empty,” Kvinnsland said at a press conference.

Norwegian health authorities were praised for the swiftness with which they implemented infection control measures. But the commission said that the decision should have been formally made by the government, rather than the Norwegian Directorate of Health.

READ MORE: Norway saw fewer hospital patients in 2020 despite pandemic 

The implementation of restrictions in March 2020 was critiqued for failing to ensure that “infection control measures were in line with the constitution and human rights.”

One-fifth of municipalities in Norway lacked a functioning plan in the event of a pandemic according to the report, and the government did not provide enough support to municipalities.

“We believe that government paid too little attention to the municipalities. The municipalities were given much larger tasks than they could have prepared for,” Kvinnsland said.

The report was also critical of Norway’s lack of a plan for dealing with imported infections in autumn 2020.

“The government lacked a plan to deal with imported infections when there was a new wave of infections in Europe in the autumn of 2020,” the report found.

“When the government eased infection control measures towards the summer of 2020, they made many assessments individually. The government did not consider the sum of the reliefs and it had no plan to deal with increasing cross-border infection,” it added.

The report also concluded that Norway allowed itself to be too easily lobbied by business when deciding to ease border restrictions last summer.

The division of roles in handling aspects of the pandemic was scrutinised in the report. Here, the division of responsibilities between the Ministry of Health and Care Services, The Norwegian Directorate of Health and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health were unclear.

The prime minister has asked the commission to continue its work.

“We are not done with the pandemic yet. Therefore, it is natural that the commission submits a final report. There will also be topics where the learning points can only be drawn later,” Solberg said.  

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