Levica: "Mom, give me a brother" won’t fix demographics — propose 20% mortgage write-off per newborn

Levica has proposed that the state assume 20 percent of the remaining mortgage on a family’s primary home for every newborn or adopted child, linking housing policy directly to measures aimed at the country’s demographic decline. The proposal was presented at a press conference by Levica MP Amar Mecinovic.

The party framed the measure as a concrete alternative to public appeals and symbolic gestures. Levica introduced the plan a day after Education Minister Vesna Janevska urged first-grade pupils on the first day of the school year to ask for a brother or sister.

Under the model explained by Mecinovic, the state would cover 20 percent of the outstanding debt on a family’s sole residence for each new or adopted child. "Unlike Minister Vesna Janevska, we propose 20 percent for a brother, 20 percent for a sister," he said, contrasting the financial measure with the minister’s message.

Household debt and shrinking school intake

Levica pointed to the scale of household mortgage obligations as a central motive for the proposal. According to figures cited by the party, households owe almost €2 billion in housing loans—about 40 percent of total household liabilities. In a single year the housing debt rose by €273 million, and housing lending grew by 16.6 percent.

The party also used education statistics to illustrate the demographic trend: in one year there are 433 fewer class groups and roughly 3,000 fewer first-graders, with 26 additional school closures and a total of 148 schools classified as empty.

Mecinovic stressed that family formation must not become a route into poverty because of loan burdens. "The demographic crisis is not solved with appeals, but by creating material conditions through long-term policies and strong investments by the state," he said.

At the end of the press briefing Mecinovic called on the state to take responsibility for the conditions in which young people live and start families. Minister Janevska, defending her remarks to first-graders, said: "I did not intend to offend anyone, but to raise the alarm."

Photo: Принтскрин