France in the face of the demographic emergency”

The house is burning and we are looking elsewhere, said Jacques Chirac when speaking of global warming. This shock formula could be applied today to the aging of the population. Flagrant for years within the European Union, the phenomenon is accelerating. In 2021, the number of deaths exceeded that of births by 1.2 million individuals. As if twelve towns of 100,000 inhabitants had been wiped off the map. At this rate, there will one day be more retirement homes than schools! France is not spared, even if it is less affected than Germany or Spain. In Italy, the population could be halved by the end of the century.

We worry, with good reason, about the increase in our debt or the rise in inflation, but we forget that the urgency is also demographic. Our economic balance depends on it. It is by the yardstick of the profile of its population that we measure the tone, the dynamism and the capacities of a country to face the future. He is…