Italian demographer: As of now, we will find ourselves entering the second half of this century with completely empty maternity wards.
To understand what Italy will be like in a generation, you don’t need to have the talent of Jean Dutourd, the writer and member of the Académie Française who in 1975 published “2024”, a great novel where he imagines a country where they no longer have children:
“On the street, I saw a child. He was shaking hands with his dad, in his thirties. What a curious sight! Already a man in his thirties is not something you see often. Especially accompanied by a child. I was enraptured. And I wasn’t the only one to be. Everyone turned to look. A lady stopped, a gentleman dropped his walking stick. Dad was aware of the strangeness of the situation. He looked provocatively at passers-by, as if to tell them: ‘All right, I’m young, I have a son, I go for a walk together, I talk to him in front of everyone. I love him, I introduce him to life, or at least to what I know of it. If anyone is bothered by all this, come and say it to my face!’ The faces of the people offered an exhilarating scene: a little disgusted, a little scandalized, but above all amazed”.
