FUEN-Vice President Martha Stocker is satisfied:

The South Tyrolean People’s Party (Südtiroler Volkspartei: SVP), member of FUEN, achieved a result in the Italian elections for the parliament that was beyond expectations. In the elections for the House of Representatives the minority party, which acts as collective movement for the South Tyroleans and Ladins, achieved 44.2 percent and passed the threshold for minority parties to enter the Italian parliament.

At the elections for the parliament on 24 and 25 February, Karl Zeller, Hans Berger and Francesco Palermo (PD/SVP) were elected for the South Tyrolean People’s Party into the senate. Albrecht Plangger, Renate Gebhard, Daniel Alfreider, Mauro Ottobre (PATT) and Manfred Schullian were elected into the House of Representatives.

With house representative Daniel Alfreider, the Ladins have for the first time a representative in the parliament in Rome. SVP is the party of the German-speaking and Ladin-speaking South Tyroleans.

The result was just below that in the elections of 2008. The Liberals achieved 15.9 percent in South Tyrol. The central-left Partido Democratico (PD) became the third party with 9.5 percent, followed by the populist protest movement of comedian Beppe Grillo with 8.3 percent.

The pre-eminent subject at the elections was the protection of the South Tyrolean autonomy. Before the elections, SVP entered into an agreement with the Partido Democratico, defining some important elements for the consolidation and development of the South Tyrolean model of autonomy. In autumn there will be important regional elections in South Tyrol.

“I am very pleased that despite strong headwind and inappropriate behaviour also by some of our exponents, we have been able to achieve a good result for SVP and for South Tyrol. I am of course concerned about the difficult situation in regard to government formation in Rome. For us in South Tyrol, important strategic decisions will have to be taken in the near future. How can we develop the South Tyrolean autonomy, strengthen and shape it so that it is sustainable in future – these are the core issues for us”, explains FUEN-vice-president Martha Stocker. Martha Stocker is regional assessor of the region Trentino-South Tyrol.

The subject of autonomy and self-government of the minorities in Europe is the main theme of the FUEN Congress that will take place in Brixen, South Tyrol, in June this year.