Ethnic Slovenian elected mayor of Duino-Aurisina
Aurisina, 14 June - Igor Gabrovec was elected mayor of Duino-Aurisina/Devin-Nabrežina, a municipality north of the city of Trieste bordering Slovenia, in Italian local elections on Sunday to become the seventh ethnic Slovenian mayor in Italy, the Trieste-based Slovenian newspaper Primorski Dnevnik has reported.
Trieste, Italy
Igor Gabrovec elected mayor of Duino-Aurisina/Devin-Nabrežina.
Photo: Nebojša Tejić/STA
File photo
Gabrovec, a candidate for the centre-left, defeated incumbent Daniela Pallotta of the centre-right with 51.45% of the vote, against 48.55%.
Local elections on Sunday were held in roughly 1,000 of Italy's 8,000 local communities. In most of the large municipalities a run-off will be needed to elect mayors.
Gabrovec, a 50-year-old whose father is an ethnic Slovenian from the village of Malchina and mother an ethnic Italian from the Slovenia area of Koper, has served as a municipal councillor for the Skupaj-Insieme (Together) List. In 1996 he was elected to the council of the Province of Trieste.
According to Primorski Dnevnik, there are currently a total of seven Slovenian mayors in Italy along with Gabrovec; four of whom in the Trieste Province and three in the Gorizia Province.
Sandy Klun serves in San Dorligo della Valle/Dolina, Tanja Kosmina in Monrupino/Repentabor and Monica Hrovatin in Sgonico/Zgonik in the Trieste Province.
In the Gorizia Province, Fabio Vizintin serves as mayor in Doberdo/Doberdob, Luca Pisk in Savogna d'Isonzo/Sovodnje ob Soči and Franca Padovan is the mayor of San Floriano del Collio/Števerjan.