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"Italians, produce more children" was one of the slogans of fascist system. If it disappeared with the latter and for decades, it is for a while now back in fashion. Anna Treves studies population dynamics, interpretations and images, not only of demographic facts, but also of political choices and works by demographers. Covering sixty years of Republican Italy history, the author analyzes the effacing and subsequent re-emergence of the idea that the state should control the birth rate. Anna Treves underlines particularly the gaps between discourses and demographic facts, and the weight of the memory of fascism. Without an overview of the long history, the renewed interest today in birth policies on both political left and right cannot be grasped. A demographic policy based on long-standing fears of a decreasing birth rate must in addition be considered alongside the question of immigration.