The train going to Italy from Austria goes through South Tyrol, which is a wonderful mountainous region in the North of Italy. Near the border the guide says: “Dear passengers, let’s say bye to the Austrian railways; the Italian railways welcome you, welcome to Italy.” But when passengers look out of the window, there see a contradiction because billboards write “South Tyrol is not Italy”.
Sud Tirol Ist Nicht Italien
The South Tyrol, mainly inhabited by Austrians, is one of Europe’s richest regions and was joined with Italy after the WWI. The conflict of South Tyrol is very specific because it started with the separation of Europe and was prevented with the uniting of Europe. Nowadays there are powers struggling for peace in this region too, and one of these powers is the “Freedom to South Tyrol” movement. The head of the movement Eva Klotz says they have sovereignty but they have the right to choose their future based on democratic principles as well. Alessandro Urdzi, supporter of united Italy, believes all nations have perfect future in Italy and they should work, reproduce and proudly call themselves Europeans and Italians.
These two parties that are conflicting in a civilized manner are called as radicals. Gabriel Toggenburg, expert of the European Academy of National Minorities in South Tyrol, says the factors of these two radicals have weakened under the European factor, the European umbrella. “People are leaving from South Tyrol (Italy) to Innsbruck (Austria) to see their relatives. They don’t show their passports at the border and don’t change their transport either when crossing the border. In a word, it seems there is no border. Brenner, which used to be a borderline city between Austria and Italy, is not the separating line of the two countries. This is what the EU did with the conflict.”
Option
The conflict of South Tyrol deepened since the time of Musolini (1920s). The region was actively inhabited with Italians (in 1910 only the 2%, and now 25%). Now the cities of South Tyrol have two architectural divisions: the German part and the Italian district. Since the collapse of the Nazis’ and Fascists’ regimes, when the European Council was generated, the struggle in South Tyrol for uniting with Austria got a new breath. Due to the efforts of the UN and CoE the South Tyrol received sovereignty.
Autonomia Dinamica
The status of this region was clearly defined in the Italian Constitution, which is not subject to change. Even Austria got the right to intervene if the right for self-determination was abused in this region. Since the two countries became members of the European Union, all the disagreements were overcome. They got “autonomia dinamica”, which is flexible sovereignty. The supporters of sovereignty believe the South Tyrol is “almost an independent state” and they have supporting justifications. For example, Bavaria being a subject of the German Federation, pays taxes to the Federal government, but the South Tyrol does not pay taxes to the government of Italy. The majority in the local parliament, which is the government body of the region, consists of the party of the South Tyrol people. Historian Jerald Stainacher says it is a “sleeping conflict” and Europe helps to keep it asleep. By saying Europe he means the wealth of the region, the free trade relations, protection of human and civic rights, in a word the European values in a large meaning of the word. Expert of political sciences Gunter Palover says it is “abnormal democracy”, when the conflicting powers are separated in the bottom (in the society), but are together on the top in the parliament and they distribute resources in the bottom such as schools, vacancies, etc.
Armen SARGSYAN