The number of Slovenians is decreasing every year. Large countries have institutions that deal with this problem, which is typical for the developed part of the world. Under the previous government, we also got one such institution – after years of promises, the Government Office for Demography was established in Maribor. However, we quickly lost it, too – when the new government came to power. And now it turns out that we desperately need it. The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia has published data showing that in December 2022, 10 percent fewer children were born than a year ago, and 3 percent fewer people died.
According to data published by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, 1,383 children were born in Slovenia in the last month of last year. This was 153 (10 percent) fewer than in December of the previous year. On average, 45 children were born per day (in the previous year, that number was 50). Provisional data show that just under 17,400 children were born between January and December 2022, or 8 percent fewer than in the previous year. Only in May were there more births than in the same month in 2021.
With young couples increasingly choosing to be childless, and those who do have children deciding to have fewer than older generations, a nationwide strategy was needed to increase the birth rate to ensure the future of the country and the prosperity of the nation. The creation of the Office for Demography did indeed only come about under the Janša government, but its idea was not new – it is just that the leftists have never been able to turn it into a reality. It is more than obvious that they have never been able to realise it. The Janša government, however, did establish the Office for Demography, because it was acutely aware that Slovenia has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe and that Slovenian culture was something worth passing on to the next generation.
However, almost immediately after taking power, the new, Golob government abolished the Office for Demography and proposed a one-year delay in the implementation of the Long-Term Care Act. It offered nothing in return. Neither for pensioners nor on the increasingly critical demographic picture.
Instead of solving the problem, we have migrations
“For more than 40 years, Slovenia has had a fertility rate that is too low for natural population replacement. I understand that the new Minister responsible for demography does not personally consider this to be a problem. But it is a huge problem for the healthcare and pension budgets, the economy, and many other things,” commented Aleš Primc immediately after the abolition of the Office for Demography.
In a press release at the time, the Ministry claimed that the office was abolished because its scope of work “overlaps with that of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.” At the time, they said that the Ministry would take over the staff, including the material resources, the documentation of the office, and the unused part of the funds that had been provided to the office in the then-+ financial plan. And they did – but then the employees of the former Office for Demography were transferred to the migration office, which also showed, somewhat tacitly, how the current authorities envisage solving the demographic problem – with migrations. Preferably the illegal ones.
It is also important to note that Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Luka Mesec, had already pointed out during his presentation as a candidate for the ministerial position that the Golob government would solve the labour shortage problems by importing economic migrants. Then, the security fence was removed from Slovenia’s southern border with Croatia. It is not in the interests of the left to preserve Slovenian identity and culture, and they are thus pursuing their policy of denationalising Slovenia. The abolition of the Office for Demography will have longer-lasting consequences.
We are being replaced by foreigners
Slovenia, however, has once again recorded positive migration growth in 2021. To put it in plain terms, this means that we are slowly but steadily being replaced by foreigners. 2,480 more people moved to Slovenia than moved from our country, and the trend was positive in all quarters. It was highest in the third quarter. 1,280 more people moved to our country than moved away. There were one fifth fewer internal migrations or changes of residence in Slovenia than in 2020.
Andrej Žitnik
