2024-07-16 17:41:58
Faced with the demographic crisis, the government is preparing a National Action Plan to strengthen the family and reverse negative trends based on 13 small regional demographic plans. In the interview granted to CityHub by the Minister of Social Cohesion and Family, Sofia Zaharakis, the strategic axes of the plan are presented, such as supporting new parents, strengthening the workforce and addressing demographic inequalities.
Seeing the negative balance of births compared to deaths, the desolation of the region, the closing of schools, the “loss” of entire cities as the figures show, do we understand in practice what a demographic problem means? Where are we with the National Action Plan you are preparing?
We are in the second phase of drafting the Plan. Initially, as the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family, we consulted extensively with Local Government, scientific bodies, political parties, social partners, the church, Civil Society. We recorded and processed proposals and policies submitted to us. The first draft was delivered to the prime minister and now, based on his directions, we are moving forward together with our fellow ministers in the final specification of specific measures. The individual parameters of the problem – since it is not only the decline in births that is demographic – also dictate the appropriate interventions in five major axes. Supporting the family, strengthening the workforce, managing aging, improving quality of life.
You realize that all policies have a reference and are directly reflected in the demographic. A good all-day school in the neighborhood, a good regional hospital, the ability of a family to find care for the baby before the age to go to the nursery, are conditions that will lead a new couple to think more easily about having a child. Empowering and facilitating the financial independence of young people is also an important part. We are in close cooperation with the Commission, which provides us with technical assistance, and I want to tell you that just yesterday the procedures for the preparation of a relevant special study officially began. At the same time as life expectancy increases we are called upon as a state to take care of the healthy and active aging of the population.
The elderly are a valuable “resource” for our society. We must provide them with all the possibilities to remain physically and mentally healthy, to contribute with their accumulated experience and great endurance, to social and economic life. Interacting with young people to create a great national team.
Arresting the demographic collapse
You know of course that we do not have a common demographic picture across the country. Is the picture different in Athens and different in Evros or in the mountainous mainland? Will you go with a recipe everywhere?
You are right. Conditions and needs are not the same across the country. We notice that in the South Aegean we have marginally more births than deaths. On the contrary, in Western Macedonia the ratio is heartbreaking, almost 2.4 deaths per birth. We know the causes of the significant discrepancy, for example, between tourist and mountain municipalities, between large urban centers and mountainous areas.
Alongside the horizontal demographic policy, we are essentially targeting 13 small regional demographic plans. But I am obliged to point out that stopping the demographic collapse cannot be done overnight. It takes years, consistency, and persistence for policies to pay off. In this context, with funding from the NSRF, we are proceeding with the creation of an Observatory for the Demographics, in order to check the results of the policies. I repeat that there are no magic recipes because if there were, others would have applied them and we could follow in their footsteps. On the contrary, we see that countries with robust economies, a welfare state and a holistic policy for the family have the same problems as us. See, for example, Japan, South Korea or countries such as Norway and Sweden.
Aren’t we starting a little late?
As a country? Yes, the truth is that we were slow to realize the magnitude of the threat. But I will add that for the last 15 years we have been fighting first not to go bankrupt and then to get back on our feet. However, as a government, I say unequivocally that not only were we not late, but from the first moment the Prime Minister himself defined demographics as a national risk and we took action.
Family support is of course a key axis of the National Plan, but already in 2019 we have moved forward with targeted benefits, allowances and all kinds of help for new mothers and new couples. The increased maternity allowance, the extension of maternity leave, parental leaves, the coverage of all applications for nurseries and Creative Employment Centers, all-day schools, the upgrading of programs in kindergartens, changes in the context of assisted reproduction, housing our programs are some of our interventions.
The decrease in unemployment, the increase in wages, the creation of a sense of security and perspective for the country as a whole, and even the de-escalation of tension with Turkey create an environment where one can think about family. The 400 thousand people who came out of unemployment can potentially see their life and the perspective of the family in different terms. I will be the last to argue that these are enough, but we are fighting hard and concertedly to create the framework so that anyone who wants to, can move forward into the world of parenthood. Which also offers a lot of love and fulfillment. And we must not forget that.
Most citizens cite the financial as an inhibiting factor for starting a family, how will this objective difficulty be dealt with?
During the preparation of the National Action Plan in order to know where we are stepping, we did a series of surveys and drew a lot of data from previous existing ones. The financial is indeed presented at the first level, but when you dig deeper, the answers lead elsewhere. For this reason, we say that demographics is a problem of modern societies that does not depend exclusively on the provision of large sums of money. We cannot ignore that changes in the life model, individualism, insecurity that is not exclusively linked to income but may stem from climate collapse or the fear of a new pandemic, discourage many young people from committing to a family.
Where will you put the main weight? Are large families asking for more support and three-child families seeking years to be labeled as large?
We must and are moving in parallel in two directions.
The first direction is greater care in supporting families with many children, and further strengthening of families with three children. Having said this, however, I would like to point out that there is already a very strong framework of protection, rights and social benefits for three children and multiple children. The second direction is the substantial encouragement of families with one child to move on to a second and from the second to the third. A major survey carried out by Metron Analysis with the valuable assistance of Eurobank has shown us that an important contribution to the goal of increasing births will be to give incentives to couples with one child to proceed with a second.
That’s where we’ll use most of our weapons. We are fully aware that the tax burden on families with children in Greece is significant and it is something we are studying very carefully to see what can be improved.
*Interview with Apostolos Tsorakis
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