On a balmy Friday afternoon earlier this month, essentially the most feared group of individuals in Europe breached the Thirteenth-century defensive partitions of Wrocław and poured into the city sq.. Some wore blue berets, others cowboy hats, straw boaters and, in a single occasion, a three-tiered cake stand adorned with kitchen sponges and pompoms. Resistance was futile: lower than an hour after their arrival, the mayor ceremonially handed over the important thing to the Polish metropolis’s gate to the flamboyantly dressed couple they’d chosen as their queen and king.
Child boomers are sometimes talked of as an existential menace to Europe’s financial prosperity and welfare state mannequin. The inhabitants of women and men born within the mid-Forties to mid-60s, who are actually of their 60s, 70s and 80s, is calculated by the World Well being Group to have overtaken individuals youthful than 15 in Europe this 12 months, and it’s estimated boomers will make up greater than 30% of the EU’s inhabitants by 2100. They’re forecast to depart workplaces understaffed and healthcare providers overwhelmed. Economists speak of them by way of pure catastrophes (“the silver tsunami”) or acts of terrorism (“the demographic bomb”).
But Wrocław, Poland’s fourth largest metropolis, isn’t preserving its aged residents at arm’s size, however hugging them shut. On the annual “march of hats”, they’re invited to parade via the town in festive apparel and lavish headgear. A marching band leads them to a stage outdoors the city corridor, the place essentially the most revolutionary headdresses are awarded prizes (a teacup fascinator manufactured from cardboard and a ceramic high hat beat the competitors this 12 months). The crowds then pair as much as shake their tail feathers to the hits of their youth. The Beatles’ I Wish to Maintain Your Hand and Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Sneakers growth out of the audio system as dancing {couples} swirl across the cobbled sq..
The purpose of the gathering is to problem what behaviour is taken into account applicable for outdated age. “My grandmother was very strict and non secular, and she or he dressed virtually like a nun,” says pensioner Ewa Rapacz, 80. “My mom socialised extra, however her precedence was her home and backyard. For me, crucial factor is to be round individuals.”
One of many roughly 180,000 retirees who make up slightly below a 3rd of the Decrease Silesian capital’s inhabitants, Rapacz is an enthusiastic participant of drama workshops funded by the town’s administration and an lively organiser of a bunch of seniors who meet to play video games from their childhood. “Folks my age typically really feel undervalued and missed,” she says, carrying a do-it-yourself hat with the slogan Ocaleni (“survivors”) and a shiny purple tassled T-shirt. “However not me: I really feel very recognised, and the way might you overlook me on this outfit?”
The march of hats kicks off a month of festivities and actions, together with a gala evening on the Wrocław Opera, Nordic strolling journeys to the encircling countryside, movie nights, workshops on coping with on-line scammers, and open-air portray periods.
“We wish to give the seniors of Wrocław an opportunity to point out a special face: not gray and unhappy, however dignified and stylish,” says Robert Pawliszko, the top of Wrocław’s senior centre, who has been concerned in organising the march of hats for 15 years. “Some individuals say older individuals are a burden – we wish to exhibit they’ve a function and a objective.”
That perspective is exceptional contemplating that Poland is feeling the crunch of demographic change extra acutely than different components of the continent. By 2035, the nation’s general inhabitants is forecast to lower by 1.5 million individuals, whereas the variety of residents over the retirement age (60 for ladies and 65 for males) is about to rise quickly – a development mirrored throughout the previous jap bloc. Based on Eurostat, individuals aged 80 years and over will account for 15% of the EU’s inhabitants by the 12 months 2100, a two-and-a-half-fold improve.
Sooner or later, these individuals will want taking care of, however the youthful era is hardly speeding to the rescue. Maybe surprisingly contemplating the position that Catholicism nonetheless performs in Polish society, the nation has one of many lowest birthrates in Europe (alongside different historically Catholic international locations like Italy and Spain). Younger Poles are having youngsters later in life, or in no way. Consequently, authorities estimate that by the 12 months 2035 there shall be 215 care-giving relations for each 100 seniors in want of care, down from virtually 300 in 2018.
But amongst researchers who’re finding out the methods wherein municipalities can put together for an ageing society, Polish cities like Wrocław – and its easterly neighbour Kraków – are more and more being held up as pioneers for different components of Europe to comply with.
Each cities are amongst these in Europe with the very best variety of universities of the third age, providing taught larger training programmes for retirees. In Wrocław, a metropolis of 680,000 individuals, there are 10 such lifelong-learning establishments; Kraków has six. Since 2014, Wrocław has additionally had a “council of seniors” – an elected physique of older residents who meet six instances a 12 months and cooperate with the town council and the mayor’s workplace to alert them to the on a regular basis challenges confronted by pensioners.
Kraków has launched a scheme the place these aged 70+ or with a big diploma of incapacity, wanting to go to departed mates, can order a microcar that can take them to the graves of their family members totally free. These in single-person households can even name up a “golden handyman” who will assist them exchange lightbulbs, repair damaged switches or unclog a blocked drain for no additional cost. And the town straight funds 50 “centres of exercise” which are open every single day from 10am to 3pm, and whose municipal help is contingent on them arising with actions that convey collectively seniors and youthful individuals.
“We’ve got assembly factors for the aged in Germany too”, stated Niklas Rathsmann of Germany’s Körber Basis, which not too long ago introduced a delegation of German lawmakers to the southern Polish metropolis to be taught from its improvements. “However in Poland they’ve been a lot faster to understand that these centres want to supply one thing extra thrilling than bingo nights. In Germany we are likely to deal with the deficits – in Poland they’re good at wanting on the potential.”
“Within the Netherlands we complain about outdated individuals on a regular basis”, says Joost van Hoof, a professor of city ageing at The Hague College of Utilized Sciences who has been researching age-friendly cities since 2007. “Even politicians who depend on these individuals as their voters do it. However I by no means hear that form of unfavourable rhetoric from Poland.”
Phrases like “silver tsunami” are Van Hoof’s bugbear. “It’s too alarmist. It’s an unlimited blessing that we now not have to arrange to wave goodbye to our family members after they flip 65.” Europe’s 70-75 age cohort, particularly, are usually not but individuals in want, however largely wholesome, cell and extra prosperous than earlier generations. “These individuals are a terrific untapped useful resource, whether or not as childcare help or as customers desperate to spend their pension cash on cultural choices.” Polish cities like Wrocław, he says, are one of many continent’s few municipalities to grab on these alternatives.
Dorota Skoczylas is just 56, however her journey speaks of the town’s proactive perspective to demographic change. A educated banker with 30 years’ expertise in debit and credit score providers, Skoczylas has for the final 10 years juggled her profession with caring for her mom, who has Alzheimer’s and associated diseases.
“As a carer and a banker I turned very conscious of the challenges that digital providers pose for senior residents, and I wished to share my experience,” she says. She approached a Polish financial institution with a proposal to organise coaching programs for aged prospects on its behalf, however acquired no reply. The employment workplace in Wrocław, nevertheless, noticed her potential to spice up what it calls the “silver financial system” and gave her a grant to retrain through the pandemic. She now hosts workshops in accounting, digital banking and on-line purchasing on the metropolis’s care houses, senior exercise centres and universities of the third age.
“For a very long time, the one query the state requested itself about seniors was the right way to say goodbye to them,” Skoczylas says. “Now that perspective is altering. These individuals might not have the web abilities but, however they’ve an unlimited quantity of expertise and data.”
Belatedly, the personal sector is being made to catch up. Poland’s authorities, which has considered one of Europe’s solely ministers for senior affairs, this April handed an act that from June subsequent 12 months obliges banks to supply in-branch {hardware} and personalised recommendation on the right way to use its on-line providers. “Will probably be a revolution,” says Skoczylas.
Ageing societies will even want to assist their oldest members with less complicated duties, resembling crossing roads. Restructuring city structure is dear, particularly in cities with historic centres like Wrocław, a key commerce hub en path to the Black Sea for the reason that twelfth century. A lot of the bus stops within the metropolis centre have lately been fitted with “Vienna-style” raised platforms to ease boarding for senior residents, although work stays to be achieved within the suburbs.
City planners working with the council say demographic change isn’t a lot a burden as a chance to make the town higher for everybody. After Poland joined the EU in 2004, a whole lot of funds went into revamping public squares like Wrocław’s Nowy Targ by plastering them with concrete and stone, recollects Jan Kazak, an affiliate professor on the Wrocław College of Environmental and Life Sciences. “They have been horrible, like pens for animals, and acquired actually sizzling in the summertime.”
Consultations with senior residents prompted a rethink, although, and this summer season the town accomplished Nowy Targ Sq.’s second revamp within the area of a decade, with loads of bushes to supply shade. “When you begin interested by the right way to make cities extra age-friendly, you find yourself with options similar to those dictated by the necessity to react to local weather change,” says Kazak.
To a big extent, Poland’s optimistic perspective is pushed by cultural components which are laborious to copy in different international locations. Faith performs a job: in accordance with the nation’s 2023 census, 71% of its inhabitants nonetheless establish as Roman Catholic. Polish tv nonetheless nurtures the stereotype of the Polish babcia (grandmother) whose on a regular basis knowledge safeguards the wellbeing of an your complete household, via characters resembling Barbara Mostowiak, the heroine of fashionable cleaning soap opera M jak miłość (L for Love), performed by 87-year-old Teresa Lipowska.
In Wrocław, which was beforehand recognized by its German title Breslau, there’s a further issue at play. Between 1945 and 1947, after the allies determined the town needs to be a part of Poland, it was the scene of one of many largest inhabitants transfers in European historical past, when roughly 500,000 German-speakers left and native Poles settled within the metropolis.
A number of the metropolis’s age-friendly schemes nonetheless communicate to this second in Wrocław’s historical past. With so-called “senior playing cards”, residents aged 60+ can achieve free entry to museums and theatres and get reductions on healthcare providers, however particular privileges are reserved for these aged 90 and over. They’re eligible to use for the “emerald” senior card, which entitles them to free home visits from hairdressers, dentists and cleaners. “For the era who rebuilt the town after the second world battle, mere monetary help and reductions wouldn’t have been applicable,” says Kazak. “Town additionally needs to pay them respect and say thanks.”
Strip away the nice and cozy phrases, and the financial actuality of many senior residents in Poland isn’t fairly so cosy. The nation’s financial system is on the up, recording the quickest GDP development within the EU this 12 months, however many older individuals have little in the best way of financial savings, and pensions within the nation are lower than half the EU common. “One of the best locations to develop outdated in Europe are undoubtedly these with stable retirement schemes, like Switzerland, Norway or Denmark,” says Van Hoof. “However locations like Wrocław and Kraków make up for it by being revolutionary on a restricted funds.”
They’ve additionally come to understand the commonest false impression concerning the “silver tsunami”. “Previous individuals are not a homogeneous group,” says Jolanta Perek-Białas, an affiliate professor at Kraków College’s Institute of Sociology. Some older individuals do sports activities into their 80s, others choose to remain at dwelling. Some are on Fb and WhatsApp, others don’t even have financial institution accounts. “They don’t all wish to match into the identical field. Perhaps let’s keep in mind that George Clooney is 63 – he’s about to grow to be an older individual too.”
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