“It’s just three little letters,” said Per-Erik Muskos jovially, brushing off a suggestion that he is interfering in people’s private lives. “S-e-x.”
Mr Muskos, a councillor in a small Swedish town, hit the headlines this week after proposing that municipal employees should be allowed a break from their working day to have sex.
“We need to look after each other,” he told the BBC. “If it can make relationships better it is worth it.”
Luring the young
Mr Muskos’s lively idea is only the latest example of officials pushing procreation, as countries around the world find their birth rates in the doldrums.
He is confident his proposal will be approved when put to his fellow councillors in a couple of months’ time.
If it does, the municipality’s 550 workers, who already get an hour a week paid time to do fitness or wellbeing activities, will also be allowed to go home for some private time with their spouses or partners.
Mr Muskos said there had been some hostility to his idea. “People think we shouldn’t talk about it, they say people can fix this by themselves,” he said. But he is unapologetic.
Overtornea is a small town with a falling, and increasingly elderly, population
Mr Muskos says measures like his could encourage young people to stay
The town of Overtornea is in northern Sweden, on the border with Finland, and towns like these are on the frontline of Sweden’s declining birth rates.
The population of about 4,500 is steadily falling, while the average age is rising. “Many young people leave the town on the same day they leave school,” Mr Muskos said.
But his proposal isn’t just about boosting baby-making, it’s about enhancing people’s lives – particularly women’s.
“People have so many other things to do,” he said. “When you are at home you have social media, you have to take your children to football and ice hockey, you don’t have time to take care of each other and have time together without children.”
He believes his proposal can address this and make the town a more attractive place to live. “If life here gets better then young people might stay,” he said.
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