Premier Giorgia Meloni said Friday
that her government's commitment to help families and reverse
Italy's declining birth rate was already having positive
effects.
"There are people who have decided to bring a child into the
world this year because today they see the institutions as being
more attentive to the issue of the family," Meloni said in her
Christmas message to staff at the premier's office at Palazzo
Chigi.
"When we talk about government, about politics, we always talk
about numbers. "But we don't deal with numbers, we deal with
people's lives, their hopes, their opportunities, their
possibilities."
Meloni has said that reversing Italy's declining birth rate is
among her government's top priorities, with the 2024 budget bill
allocating 2.5 billion euros to addressing this issue.
The budget includes measures for nurseries, tax breaks for firms
that give working mothers permanent job contracts and payment of
the social-security contributions of women who have two children
or more.
Meloni, who gave the message via video-link, has had to cancel
or postpone her engagements of the last few days because of flu.
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