Ceremonies marking the National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe took place all over Italy, commemorating the killings and forced exodus of people of Italian descent from the Istria and Dalmatia regions of Croatia and Slovenia towards the end of World War II and after.
“Remembering does not mean recrimination or even revenge,” Tajani said, underlining the importance of Slovenia and Croatia as Italy’s partners in the Balkans.
President Mattarella recalled Fascist Italy’s oppression of Slovenians and Croatians during the wartime occupation of Yugoslavia, after which, he said, “Tito’s communist dictatorship was established, inaugurating a ruthless season of violence against the Italians living in those areas”.
The commemoration came in the wake of outrage after a slogan in badly-written Slovenian, spray painted on the ground near the national monument to the victims in Basovizza, Trieste.
“Trieste is ours, death to Fascism, freedom to the people”, the slogan said, referencing the Italian city that many Slovenes hoped would become part of Yugoslavia after World War II – but which was assigned to Italy.
Shortly after the news of the incident spread, a march took place in Trieste organized by the neo-Fascist organization Pro Patria, during which participants chanted slogans calling for the whole of the Istrian peninsula to return to Italian rule.
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