若者消えるブルガリア　４人に１人が６５歳以上

【ガブロボＡＦＰ＝時事】人けのない廊下、ベビーベッドには赤ちゃんが８人だけ──。ブルガリアの都市ガブロボの産科病棟は、欧州連合（ＥＵ）最貧国の急激な出生率低下を象徴している。（写真はブルガリア・ガブロボの産科病棟）
　小児科医ビストラ・カンブロバ氏（６８）は「出産適齢期の人はあまり残っていない。若い人は職を求め、大都市や海外に行ってしまった」と、ＡＦＰに語った。
　バルカン山脈の麓に位置するガブロボは、かつては工業が盛んだった。「ブルガリアのマンチェスター（英国の産業都市）」と呼ばれたこともある。しかし、１９８５年に比べ、人口は半減した。
　ブルガリアではありふれた話だ。
　汚職がまん延し、将来に期待が持てない、政治危機も連鎖。幻滅した若者は去っていく。
　１９８９年には９００万人近くいたブルガリアの人口は、現在は６５２万人にまで落ち込んでいる。うち４分の１は６５歳以上だ。

■「味気ない土地」
　破産と民営化の波が押し寄せる前の共産主義時代には、カブロボでは数千人の雇用があった。現在は国内で最も出生率が低く、ほぼ無人の村の数が最も多い地域となっている。
　カンブロバ氏は「１９８５年にここで働き始めた。当時、出生数はまだかなり多く、年間約１０００人の赤ちゃんが生まれていた」と語った。成人した息子２人は、ガブロボを離れている。
　２０２１年にガブロボで生まれた赤ちゃんはわずか２６３人。かなり前に定年を迎えたが、なおかくしゃくとしているカンブロバ氏が世話をしている。報酬は「惨めなもの」だ。
　助産師のマリアナ・バルバノバさんは言う。「話は単純。雇用がなく、若者がいないから赤ちゃんも生まれない」
　残っている人の多くも、カブロボから出て行こうとしている。
　女の子を最近出産した言語聴覚士のクリスティアナ・クラステバさん（２３）は「ガブロボには平穏と落ち着き、新鮮な空気があるけれど、出会うのは高齢者だけの味気ない土地」だと語った。
　大工をしているクラステバさんの夫は、より良い未来を求め、家族で英国に移住する準備を進めている。

■「孫、貸します」
　ガブロボから２５キロ離れた、絵のように美しい村ザヤの人口はわずか３５人。
　フランスや英国、ベルギー、ロシア、イタリアなどから、生活費の安さに引かれた年金生活者が移り住んでいる。
　村に投票所はなく、食料品店は何年も前に閉店した。
　元電気技師のマリン・クラステフさん（７７）は週に１回、車を運転し、同年代の女性３人と連れ立って最寄りの店まで買い物に出掛ける。「一緒に買い物に行くことに決めた。何とかやっている」と話す。クラステフさんの娘は、何年も前にドイツに移住した。
　生活を少しでも明るいものにしようと、高齢者は夏の間、若者に村の生活を体験させる自治体のプログラム「孫、貸します」に参加する。
　村の文化センターのボヤナ・ボネバ会長（７５）は「若い人たちはウサギや自家製トマト、ピーマンを楽しんでいる」とほほ笑んだ。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/10/20-14:11）

Empty corridors and only eight babies in their cribs. The maternity ward in the city of Gabrovo tells you everything you need to know about the drastic drop in the birth rate in Bulgaria.
There are not many people of childbearing age left around here. The young left looking for jobs in the big cities or abroad, paediatrician Bistra Kamburova, 68, told AFP.
Gabrovo, huddled at the foot of the Balkan mountains, is symbolic of the population decline in the European Union's poorest member.
Once known as the Bulgarian Manchester for its booming industry, the town has lost half its people since 1985.
It is a familiar story across the country.
Corruption, lack of prospects and a spiral of political crises that will see Bulgarians vote Sunday in their fourth general election in 18 months, have chased its disillusioned young people away.
Analysts predict the election will once again return a fragmented parliament with no party able to cobble together a strong coalition.
Bulgaria has lost a tenth of its population in a decade, making it one of the world's fastest shrinking nations.
It now has 6.52 million people compared to close to 9.0 million inhabitants in 1989. And a quarter of the population is aged 65 or over.
- 'It's a desert' -
Gabrovo's industries employed thousands of workers during communism, before bankruptcies and privatisations laid the factories bare.
Now it has become the region with the lowest birth rate and the highest number of almost uninhabited villages in the country.
I started working here in 1985. At that time the number of births was still quite high -- around 1,000 babies per year, said Dr Kamburova, whose two grown-up sons are among those who have left Gabrovo.
But the factories were working, working, working, she added.
Last year only 263 babies were born in the Gabrovo region and looked after by the energetic paediatrician, who works on long after her retirement age for miserable pay.
The explanation is simple -- no employment, no young people, no babies, said midwife Mariana Varbanova.
Many of those who remain are keen to leave.
In Gabrovo, you enjoy the peace and quiet and the fresh air, but it's a desert where you only meet elderly people, said Hristiana Krasteva, a 23-year-old speech therapist, who recently gave birth to a baby girl.
Her husband, who works as a carpenter, is getting ready to leave for Britain in search of a better future for his family.
- 'Grandchildren for rent' -
In front of the first public school in Bulgaria, founded in Gabrovo in 1835, high school student Ivo Dimitrov also wants to leave for western Europe to get quality education and new horizons.
It's chaos here, he said, denouncing the negligence of the political class.
Despite aid from Brussels since Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 to help development, transport and tourism projects, Gabrovo needs fewer and fewer workers.
It will take time to reverse the demographic trend, analyst Adrian Nikolov from the Sofia-based Institute for Market Economy told AFP.
Only 35 people live in the picturesque 17th-century village of Zaya some 25 kilometres from Gabrovo.
Apart from the locals, pensioners from France, Britain, Belgium, Russia, Italy and other countries have settled there attracted by the cheaper cost of living.
There is no polling station, and the village grocery store shut years ago for lack of customers.
We decided to get together to go shopping. We get by somehow, said Marin Krastev, a retired electrician, whose daughter long ago left for Germany.
Once a week, the 77-year-old drives three other retired women from the village to the nearest shop.
To brighten up their lives, the elderly joined a municipal programme over the summer called Grandchildren for Rent that brought young people to Zaya to discover village life.
They enjoyed the rabbits, as well as the home-grown tomatoes and peppers, the village's cultural centre chairwoman Boyana Boneva, 75, smiled.