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🇮🇹 Italy /Elections & Politics

Eva Klotz’s Life Devoted to the Utopia of an Independent South Tyrol: “Autonomy Has Betrayed Our Rights”

From Corriere della Sera · () Italian

Translated from Italian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • Eva Klotz, a longtime South Tyrolean independence leader, rejects celebrations marking 80 years of the De Gasperi-Gruber agreement.
  • She says South Tyrol’s autonomy amounts to administrative decentralization rather than genuine sovereignty.
  • Klotz calls for self-determination and a referendum on an independent South Tyrol, arguing that even many Italian speakers would support it.

Eva Klotz has no reason to celebrate South Tyrol’s Autonomy Day. “There was nothing to celebrate on September 5,” she says. “What exists in South Tyrol is not autonomy at all, but mere decentralization.”

There was nothing to celebrate on September 5. What exists in South Tyrol is not autonomy at all, but mere decentralization.

· Eva KlotzKlotz rejects celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of South Tyrol’s autonomy.

Klotz, a historic figure in South Tyrolean independence politics and a co-founder of Süd-Tiroler Freiheit, has spent four decades in the provincial council in Bolzano. The daughter of Georg Klotz, a separatist militant from the South Tyrolean Liberation Committee, she uses the 80th anniversary of the De Gasperi-Gruber agreement to renew her case for self-determination.

In her view, the system created by the agreement is not genuine sovereignty. It is “a revocable administrative concession from the state.” Full autonomy, she argues, would require financial, administrative and police independence, control over schools and culture, and responsibility for immigration. Instead, she says, the state has retained primary powers and strategic decisions, leaving South Tyrol to implement them.

a revocable administrative concession from the state

· Eva KlotzShe describes what she sees as the real nature of South Tyrol’s autonomy.

Klotz says the principles of self-determination and the reunification of Tyrol were betrayed by the Treaty of Paris. She also criticizes the 1946 agreement signed by Alcide De Gasperi and Karl Gruber, noting that the Austrian parliament was not involved and that former Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky called it “a document of extreme weakness for Vienna.”

a document of extreme weakness for Vienna

· Bruno KreiskyKlotz cites Kreisky’s assessment of the De Gasperi-Gruber agreement.

She argues that the Allies lacked the courage to deliver genuine justice and says South Tyrol should not have been assigned to Italy. Klotz also claims that many Italian-speaking residents now recognize that the annexation was a mistake. She blames De Gasperi’s regional autonomy model for placing German- and Ladin-speaking residents in a minority and describes it as a major deception. Her ultimate goal remains a referendum on a sovereign South Tyrol, which she says many Italian voters would also support.

My father would want us to continue fighting for our ultimate goal

· Eva KlotzThe headline presents her description of her father’s continuing influence on the independence cause.
About this summary

Originally published by Corriere della Sera in Italian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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