The Portuguese Large Families Association (APFN) has been following with concern the debates surrounding the draft ‘Work XXI’ on labour law reform in Portugal, particularly regarding measures that have a direct impact on families, their autonomy and organization, and the birth rate.
The main European states have long recognized the need to implement support measures that encourage families to have the children they want, as opposed to those they think they can have, thereby combating the serious demographic crisis that is plaguing the continent.
But, above all, they understood that the key to combating this crisis lies in improving the environment around the issue of motherhood and fatherhood, generating confidence, so that they are no longer seen as a threat to the financial and professional security of men and women.
What is happening with the debate surrounding various concrete proposals in “Trabalho XXI” is the opposite.
A Government that views parenthood with suspicion, as an obstacle to economic development rather than its main driver in the long term, is doomed to worsen an already difficult situation for families in Portugal.
APFN is pleased to see that even within the main party of the governing coalition, voices of common sense are already being raised. As the largest family organization in Portugal, and one that is completely independent, APFN reminds policy makers that it remains, as it always has been, willing to contribute constructively to a reform that truly serves the birth rate, families and their rights, always guided by the principles of freedom of choice, subsidiarity and autonomy.