Euro Crisis Accelerates Division in Europe

From Rome and Berlin—the new dominant axis in Europe—German-Foreign-Policy.com reports that cries for the ceding of the Germanic Italian province of Bolzano/Alto Adige (South Tyrol) from Italy and its realignment as an Austrian province are escalating in the wake of the euro crisis.

The moves have historically been supported by Berlin.

German-Foreign-Policy.com reports that calls by the Italian government to make extensive cuts in the state budget based on the German savings diktat insist that South Tyrol should participate accordingly.

However, “The province’s government, one of the wealthiest in Italy, is searching for a way out. A South Tyrol government member demands the province’s ‘total economic autonomy’ in order to stop the fund redistribution to southern Italy. Certain secessionist circles within South Tyrol are pressing for a referendum on the complete separation of South Tyrol from Italy and do not exclude its annexation to Austria” (August 3, translation ours throughout).

German-Foreign-Policy.com notes that “the self governance efforts in parts of the German-speaking minority of northern Italy have been supported for many years by the German Federal Republic—partially by organizations at the forefront of German foreign policy, partially by activists of the extreme right.”

German-Foreign-Policy.com further draws attention to the fact that “during the 1960s there were reports of direct contacts of high-ranking German politicians with South Tyrol’s separatist terrorists. Under the pressure of the euro crisis, the efforts of that time are coming closer to realizing their goal more strongly today than ever before.”