Seventy years ago, on 26 October 1954, a vast crowd of men and women gathered in the pouring rain, with the Bora wind fiercely blowing, to welcome the Italian troops entering Trieste. The entire city had been up all night, waiting to embrace the soldiers with the tricolour flag and reunite once again with the rest of the nation. On that day, the homeland returned to Trieste and Trieste returned to the homeland. A day that remains etched in the memory of the Italian people, marking the culmination of a long story of love and suffering, of defeats and victory, of bitterness and hope.

While, in the First World War, Trieste had symbolised completion of the Risorgimento and Italian unification, at the end of the Second World War the city told a completely different story: forty days of Yugoslav occupation, the Foibe massacres, the British-American administration and the heavy consequences of a treaty that separated Trieste from Italy, confining it to being a ‘Free Territory’. As well as the loss of the eastern Adriatic provinces – Pula, Rijeka and Zadar – and the consequent exodus of Italians from those lands, a new ‘Trieste question’ also arose, as the city was disputed between Italy and Yugoslavia, between the free world and the communist world.

The Trieste question, however, was always more than a diplomatic dispute and government relations matter; it was a people’s issue that ignited the hearts of an entire generation of Italians, sparking cultural and social debate. Young people in cities across Italy marched with the tricolour and the flag of Trieste, emblazoned with the halberd of Saint Sergius; at the Sanremo music festival, there was a song about the flight of a white dove, which was a declaration of love at the same time as a salute and a promise that Trieste would return to Italy. In November 1953, there was a revolt against the British officials in Trieste, triggered by a torn Italian tricolour flag, which laid the foundations for the city’s return to Italy. Six people lost their lives over the course of those days, one of whom was Pierino Addobbati, a very young exile from Zadar, aged just 14. Those six fallen revived the nation’s passionate drive for renewed reunification.

It is my hope that the seventieth anniversary of Trieste’s return to Italy will be an opportunity to renew a promise and set new goals to be achieved. That promise is to reaffirm the declaration of loyalty to the homeland and to its identity, values and symbols, carrying into the future the history we have inherited.

Today, Trieste is no longer a city on the periphery of Italy and Europe, but rather lies at the heart of a Europe anchored in a common identity made up of roots, freedom, democracy, work and opportunity. Thanks to its geographical position, this city is at the centre of strategic interconnections and can aspire to become a major logistics platform focused on the Adriatic, and therefore for the Mediterranean and beyond.
I am thinking of the significant potential growth stemming from development of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which Italy helped to establish within the G20 context. We intend to play a key role in this fundamental strategic initiative, in which we can make the difference.

Trieste is at the same time ‘the most Italian’ and ‘the most Mitteleuropean’ city in Italy, as well as being a natural bridge between Italian and Latin identity and that of our closest Slavic and Germanic neighbours. This allows us to play a leading role also with regard to engagement with the Western Balkans, a region that has always been of crucial importance for Italy. Everything that happens on the other side of the Adriatic is of interest to us, and we have a great responsibility towards a region that cannot remain outside of the common European home for much longer. This is also and above all why Italy will keep working to ensure the European reunification process for the Western Balkans can continue, with drive and determination.

With its businesses, productive fabric and maritime reach, however, Trieste can also play an important role in supporting Italy’s innate geopolitical vocation to look south, to the wider Mediterranean region and Africa, with a driving force also being provided by the Mattei Plan, which means a positive, equal and non-predatory approach towards the peoples and nations of that continent. 

70 years ago, Trieste returned to Italy. Today, we are celebrating this long love story, with a flag raising ceremony in the city’s Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia, tricolour flags hanging from the windows and eyes looking up to the sky to admire the wonderful Frecce Tricolori aerobatic team. 

The soul of Trieste, steeped in a deep yet troubled Italianness, calls for prospects, pride and a future. And we are ready to support this ambition, because Trieste is part of us. Trieste is Italy.

[Courtesy translation]