Yesterday’s joke in La Tribune du Dimanche was right in terms of summarizing the spirit of the times. Emmanuel Macron was seen there, followed by a high-ranking officer in uniform, inspecting the courtyard of the Elysée. But it wasn’t a row of soldiers who paid honors to the President of the Republic, but mothers with prams, lined up in front of the red carpet.
In recent days, Macron has spoken a lot about the need for rearmament, in its strict military sense, as well as civic, economic and demographic rearmament. The French head of state has insisted on continuing to greatly increase the effort in defense and to adopt, in the industrial field, a philosophy of “war economy” to be able to face the new geopolitical threats and to be able to give Ukraine what it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression.
In his long press conference on Tuesday, which was conceived as a “meeting with the nation”, the French president surprised the country with his energetic allegation in favor of the birth rate. He spoke of the urgency of “demographic rearmament”. The data for 2023 had just been made public, very disturbing. Never since the end of the Second World War have so few babies been born in France: just 678,000, 6.6% less than in 2022. Since 2011, births have not stopped falling, except for the year 2021 because a post-covid upswing was recorded. The fertility rate is 1.68 children.
The latest figures have come as a real shock because they confirm the end of a French exception. “We were the strength, without a doubt the uniqueness of Europe when compared to our neighbors,” Macron admitted.
What are the reasons for the sudden change in trend and French demographic decline? Experts agree that the year 2023 was particularly discouraging for fathering children. First of all because of inflation, at the highest level in many years, but also because of the anxiety created by the conflict in Ukraine, a large-scale war in Europe. Other structural factors are added, such as the high cost of housing and the difficulty in finding it, or the growing concern of new generations about climate change and environmental problems. Couples of childbearing age decide late and ponder a lot before taking the step. The generous French welfare state no longer has as much of a positive influence as it once did. There are many factors to consider.
Philosopher and hospital director Frédéric Spinhirny, author of Vous voulez sauver la planète? Make dogs! ( Do you want to save the planet? Have children) assured Le Journal du Dimanche that we are facing almost “an anthropological revolution” in which having children has become an option like any other and not something natural and even essential, as happened in previous societies.
The falling birth rate will revive and may further poison the already tense immigration debate. It is clear that the constant flow of foreigners cushions the French demographic weakness. The statistics hide politically and sociologically very interesting data. The fertility of continental France, the Hexagon, would be even lower if the figures of overseas departments with a high birth rate such as Mayotte – an archipelago in the Indian Ocean – or Guyana were not included in the total calculation of the country French, in South America. The demographic strength of immigration must also be taken into account. Babies born to parents who were not born in the European Union have increased by 72% since 2000.
In view of this scenario, Macron proposed to eliminate paternity leave and replace it with a “birth leave”, of six months and more well paid. The French president announced “a great national plan” against the “plague” of infertility, which he considered “the taboo of the century” and which he attributed, in part, to “changing customs” and the tendency to delay each time plus the first pregnancy. At the Elisi, they are apparently thinking of introducing a free gynecological examination for women at the age of 25 and a sperm analysis for men, with the aim of correcting any problems in time.
The proposals made by Macron – who has no children of his own, although his wife, Brigitte Macron, did have children from his first marriage and is also a grandmother – prompted jokes and some criticism, especially from feminist leaders that they missed in the president’s speech a serious and honest reflection addressed to women. The seasoned ecologist MP Sandrine Rousseau put it unequivocally: “Our wombs are not a State affair”.
