Repopulating Sardinian municipalities and countering the decline in residents are the issues to which the “Freemmos” project of the Maria Carta foundation is once again drawing attention, with the initiative in the Sassu hall of the “Canepa” conservatory in Sassari.

The data is worrying: in Italy the population has fallen below 59 million inhabitants. In Sassari, according to Istat, residents in the municipal area were 126 thousand in 2018, the year in which the historical peak was reached. In 2021, however, there were 122,159 residents, with a drop of almost 4 thousand units in three years, with a regression to 1991 levels when the city had 122,339 inhabitants.

While the whole of Sardinia has lost 83,000 residents compared to 2012, bringing the population below the threshold of one million and 600,000 (1,587,413 as of 2022), with about thirty villages destined to disappear in the next 40-60 years; and the phenomenon of emigration has once again made itself felt with force.

Numbers on which a reflection started last night during the evening in collaboration with the conservatory and with the patronage of the Municipality of Sassari.

At the opening, the Swinging Quintet (Silvia Ruiu on vocals, Giuseppe Bussu on tenor sax, Valentino Cubeddu on piano, Daniele Pistis on double bass and Marco Cattari on drums, all from the "Canepa") performed some classic jazz songs. The president and director of the "Canepa" Conservatory, Ivano Iai and Mariano Meloni , and the municipal councilor for Culture Laura Useri then spoke.

Leonardo Marras, president of the Maria Carta Foundation, analyzed with the journalist Giacomo Serreli, who coordinated the event, the numbers on residents in the city and on the island. «The alarm we raised six years ago, when Freemmos began its journey in the Sardinian municipalities, is more timely than ever – said Marras -. The depopulation emergency is the real virus of our time. It is now also affecting the big realities and we need to put a real and immediate barrier to the phenomenon. That's why I prefer to talk about restocking. Our young people leave to get to know the world and train, but then they have to return to Sardinia, because this is their home".