“This data is terrifying. And the most tragic part? In more than 1000 years, we have not been destroyed by the Germans, the Turks, the French, the Nazis, the fascists, or the communists. We will perish on our own, through our own fault,” infectious disease specialist Federico V. Potočnik responded to the Eurostat data on Twitter. Namely, in 2021, twelve more people died in Slovenia on an average day than were born, and the statistics are similar when it comes to the ratio of immigrants to those who left the country. The statistics, therefore, prove that the claims of the Robert Golob government, which said that the abolition of the Government Office for Demography was justified and not an ideological decision, were actually just lies.
In the middle of July, the government of Robert Golob issued a decree abolishing the Government Office for Demography, which had been set up by the former government of Janez Janša – the current government is said to have been most disturbed by the fact that the office was staffed by a large number of people who were close to the previous coalition. The establishment of the Office for Demography was actually what the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (Demokratska stranka upokojencev Slovenije – DeSUS) said was its condition for entering the third Janša government.
According to the General Secretariat of the Government, the ministerial team of the current government decided to abolish the office in question because the work area overlapped with that of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. The Office for Demography considered its work to be effective – in particular, it highlighted the measures taken to raise the birth rate. However, one of the opinions from the Golob government’s circles is that an analysis of why the country’s birth rate is so low should have been carried out before the said measures were taken.
“We do not need the office, which was established by the government of Janez Janša to promote conservative fertility policies and traditional values of fatherhood and motherhood,” the Ministry of Labour said, according to the N1 media outlet. The Golob government has also delayed the implementation of the Long Term Care Act by (at least) one year. “This data is terrifying. And the most tragic part? In more than 1000 years, we have not been destroyed by the Germans, the Turks, the French, the Nazis, the fascists, or the communists. We will perish on our own, through our own fault,” infectious disease specialist Federico V. Potočnik responded to the data that was published by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia on Twitter. The published figures show, among other things, that more people die on an average day in Slovenia than are born, and more people immigrate than leave the country. Is this the ”brave new world” promised by Luka Mesec from the Left party (Levica), many people wonder, and also note that immigrants enjoy many more benefits than the native population. “From social housing to higher benefits, and so on. If they want to receive social benefits, they only have to show up a couple of times at the beginners’ Slovenian course,” wrote one social network user.
The fact that an ageing population with a low birth rate is the biggest strategic threat to Slovenia’s future was also pointed out some time ago by former Prime Minister Janša, who was outraged by the fact that the Golob government was abolishing the Office for Demography. “it is as if the fire brigade had been abolished, just before the most dangerous fire season,” he made a critical comparison, while some people were of the opinion that the Golob government was relying on “importing” people – it was around the same time that they confirmed that they would tear down the fence on the southern border. The fact that fertility rates are falling is also reported from elsewhere in the world. In Sweden, the fertility rate is slowly falling from 1.91 children per woman in 2012 to 1.67 children per woman in 2021. It should be borne in mind here that the replacement fertility rate is 2.1 – that is to say, each woman should have an average of 2.1 children, simply to maintain population stability.
Sara Kovač