2023-04-20 19:04:00
Italy’s demographic bomb is ticking, but the right-wing government doesn’t want to defuse it through migration – and warns against “population exchange”. A fact check.
With the wave of migration from North Africa, an explosive topic is back in the headlines in Italy: the demographic bomb. Italy’s population is shrinking and aging faster than in almost any other EU country. If birth rates continue to fall so rapidly, by 2050 Italy will have lost as many inhabitants as live in all of Austria today.
So it’s a fact: Italians are dying out. And images of overcrowded refugee boats arouse cultural existential fears – which the far-right government is fueling. “We must not accept the issue of ethnic exchange: Italians have fewer children, so let’s replace them with someone else,” warns Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida of Giorgia Meloni’s ruling Fratelli d’Italia party.
“Population Exchange”, also “Great Exchange”, stands for the conspiracy theory popular among neo-Nazis, according to which an “elite” wanted to exchange the population in the West in order to eliminate white people.
Even the right-wing populist Lega was appalled by the minister’s racist choice of words this time, although Lega boss Matteo Salvini himself had spoken of “population exchange” in the past. Lollobrigida, nephew of the late diva Gina and husband of Meloni’s sister Arianna, rowed back. He spoke of a “misunderstanding” and even admitted ignorance.
However, the problem remains unsolved: Italy’s demographic time bomb is ticking, politicians are powerless. But facts and figures tell different stories than those of the “Great Exchange”.
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