Slovenian minority party in Italy running in EU election
Trieste, 23 April - The Slovenian Community (SSk), a political party of the Slovenian minority in Italy, will be taking part in the European Parliament elections in June, with its sole candidate running on the list of the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP).
The SSk chose last night Franka Padovan, the mayor of San Floriano del Collio, as its candidate. The SVP list will also feature candidates of the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party (PATT) and the movement Autonomous Belluno Dolomiti Region (BARD).
Under Italian legislation, a list representing German, French or Slovenian-speaking minorities has a better chance of being elected. A candidate from this list becomes MEP with only 50,000 preferential votes if the list makes a pact with an all-Italian party that produces at least one MEP.
Therefore, the SVP has connected with the centre-right Forza Italia, SSk president Damijan Terpin told the STA. A similar agreement was made five years ago, when the SSk also endorsed the SVP list, he added.
"I believe that the move by Forza Italia is almost noble toward minorities because it enables the minority SVP party to get an MEP. This is the result of political agreements the SVP has in South Tyrol," Terpin said.
The SVP list will be headlined by the party's own Herbert Dorfmann, who has been an MEP for three consecutive terms, serving in the European People's Party (EPP) group.