In Italy, they pay 700 euros a month to live in the city

The Molise region, located in southern Italy, offers 700 euros a month to people who settle in one of the cities in the region with less than 2,000 inhabitants and who run a business for at least five years in order to fight the problems of depopulation.

This is a proposal from the regional authorities that will be published on September 16 in the official regional newsletter and has already been authorized by the Ministry of Economic Development.

Councilor Antonio Tedeschi, a member of the Regional Council chaired by the curator Donato Toma, from Forza Italy, was the initiator of this unusual proposal. It aims to repopulate the hundreds of villages in the region being emptied, revitalize their economy and create jobs. .

Those who settle in one of them for at least five years and develop a profitable economic activity will receive a monthly income of 700 euros.

The measure has been dubbed "active residence income" and the total amount allocated and authorized by the Italian government reaches one million euros.

Tedeschi badures in the social networks that "the initiative is born to put an end to the sad depopulation phenomenon" and, although he recognizes that the conditions "are not the panacea", he hopes that is "a first step towards revitalizing" the area.

The regional government itself has invited interested parties to send their applications to the Regional Council for sixty days after the publication of the announcement in the official bulletin.

Molise is a mountainous region in central Italy that overlooks the Adriatic Sea, with approximately 305,000 inhabitants, and has 136 villages, of which at least 100 of them have fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, with the risk to become almost completely depopulated.

For example, in Pizzone, in the province of Isernia, there is no grocery store or pharmacy. There is only one bar that sells, in addition to coffee and bills, bread, milk and few other things.

"Everyone is leaving. There is no future. The only activities that survive are farming activities. My dream would be to return to Pizzone one day, "says Laura D'Amico, 27, who currently works as a social worker in Milan.