Mattarella and Van der Bellen celebrate the De Gasperi-Gruber agreement 80 years after its signature

Eighty years ago, in a Europe deeply wounded by the Second World War but hungry for democratic values, the agreement that changed Trentino-Alto Adige forever was signed in Paris - exactly on 5 September 1946, a pact, the De Gasperi-Gruber one, which laid the foundations for a peaceful coexistence between the linguistic minorities present in the territory, which is still a peculiarity and strength of this Region today. And to remember him, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and his Austrian counterpart Alexander Van der Bellen met first in Merano and then in Trento. "The Paris agreement was the result of a far-sighted will of two statesmen who, in the face of the immense tragedy of the Second World War, were able to identify an innovative and courageous solution to the question of Alto Adige/Südtirol", said Mattarella, recalling how the two young Republics - the Austrian one was reborn with independence and the Italian one was established by the referendum - wanted to affirm with the agreement a principle reiterated in the Italian Constitution: "there was no 'aligens', foreigners, at home". "The collaboration between Vienna and Rome - underlined Van der Bellen - is as friendly and productive as ever. It was the South Tyroleans who built peaceful coexistence over the decades by choosing the path of common sense, placing what unites above what divides".

A reasoning, that on autonomy, which the Head of State also takes up in his speech in Trento, underlining how "the Republic and autonomies, including special ones, are closely linked to each other and have nourished and marked the development of Italian democracy in contrast to fascism and in discontinuity with the characteristics of pre-fascist Italy" and that the Trentino people themselves had given the Republic "a statesman like De Gasperi, who opened the way towards new horizons". The President of the Republic then quotes Pope Leo to remind us how people come "before borders, definitions and institutions". And it is precisely citizens that Mattarella has in mind when he speaks of "distrust" that "is spreading towards democratic participation, manifested by the growing tendency to abstain from voting" and which "can be overcome by drawing on examples of authentic self-sacrifice and respect for the needs and expectations of citizens". An invitation to "be open and build bridges, be a small Europe within Europe", comes from the South Tyrolean governor, Arno Kompatscher. While the Trentino governor Maurizio Fugatti spoke of "an autonomy that looks to its roots to look to the future and which" is not just a set of skills and resources but responsibility towards the citizens and towards the generations to come".