A French mayor is offering free viagra to residents to tackle the village's declining population.
Jean Debouzy, the mayor of Montereau in northern France, hopes the new policy will produce enough children to save the community's local school, which has been threatened with closure.
He said would give the "little blue pills” to couples aged between 18 and 40 “in order to give them every chance of conceiving".
The village has a population of around 600 people.
Mr Debouzy said: “A village without children is a village that dies.
“The pills will be distributed to couples between the ages of 18 and 40 in order to give them the chance of conception and thus preserve the schools of the two villages [Montereau’s and a neighbouring one].”
He admitted his proposal had been something of a publicity stunt, and he had not yet obtained a supply of the drugs, but insisted his motivations were admirable.
“It’s made people talk about the school,” he told newspaper La Dépêche.
“You know what those ‘little blue pills’ are.. I don’t have to tell you. We all need to have a sense of humour sometimes – mayors don’t always!”
Mr Debouzy said his council had been engaged in a “battle” for many months with the national schools’ inspectorate, following its announced plans to shut down a number of local schools in September 2019.
Alongside the mayor’s proposed boost to couples’ sex-drive, Mr Debouzy said he was also putting forward plans for a “special maternity bonus”, to be awarded for every new birth in the village.
French authorities have long sought measures to encourage a higher birth rate and ease the burden of the country’s ageing population.
Large subsidies and tax breaks are offered to families with children in Paris, while childcare services and parental leave are available until the child turns three.
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France’s overall birth rate fell for a fourth year in a row in 2018, despite the county’s fertility rate being higher than in most developed countries, including the US, Germany and the UK.
In Britain, viagra is now available over the counter after the drug was reclassified by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in November 2017.
However, those living in France normally need a doctor's prescription to obtain the drug.
