Minority org worried about major shift to right in Trieste
Trieste, 19 October - The SKGZ Slovenian minority organisation in Italy is "seriously worried" about a substantial shift to the right in the local elections in the city of Trieste, where centre-right Mayor Roberto Dipiazza was re-elected and the far-right Brothers of Italy became the second strongest party in the city.
Trieste, Italy
Ksenija Dobrila, president of the KGZS umbrella minority organisation of Slovenians in Italy.
Photo: Nebojša Tejić/STA
File photo
Ksenija Dobrila, head of the Slovenian Cultural and Economic Association (SKGZ), told the STA on Monday that Brothers of Italy would undoubtedly have quite some room for manoeuvring in local government.
Trieste has in her view confirmed its extremely conservative essence, which is not interested in European cross-border projects, the environment, brain drain, or an almost dramatic demographic implosion.
However, given the circumstances, the Slovenians in Trieste have managed to accomplish a true feat by having two Slovenians from the Democratic Party elected, she said.
"This is the core we are counting on in terms of cooperation to implement basic rights" of the Slovenians in Trieste, said the head of one of the umbrella Slovenian minority organisations in Italy.
Here she pointed to the use of Slovenian language, visible bilinguality, a greater cultural and social presence in the city centre and in the emerging culture infrastructure in the old port, a better management of villages in Trieste's surroundings, better offer of pre-school education in Slovenian, and improvements of education infrastructure for Slovenian children.
"And last but not least, we expect as few obstacles as possible to the efforts to revive the National Hall in the form envisaged by our ancestors," said Dobrila.
The National Hall, a major centre of Slovenians in Italy, was returned to the minority last year, after it was burned down by Italian nationalists and Fascists in 1920.