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No province in Italy appears to be richer and luckier than South Tyrol. It has the very best per capita revenue and the bottom unemployment fee. The standard of life is excessive, due to a beneficiant welfare system, an environment friendly public administration and breathtaking surroundings.
Not surprisingly, vacationers from all around the world are drawn to this Alpine land on the Austrian border, which seems to be like the right setting for a remake of The Sound of Music. Italian, American English, French, Chinese language and Swiss German will be heard on the streets. The lodges are full, there are queues to get into eating places.
In fact, if German is spoken in South Tyrol it’s not simply because vacationers from Zurich and Munich wish to eat the native strudel or go snowboarding within the Gardena valley: greater than two-thirds of the inhabitants converse German as their mom tongue as a result of the province was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire till the top of the First World Struggle. At the moment, solely the capital Bolzano and some different cities have an Italian-speaking majority.
In response to an area joke, South Tyrol is ideal as a result of you’ll be able to eat in addition to in Italy however the administration could be very German-style: the province enjoys a excessive diploma of autonomy, and its governor is a sort of ‘mini-prime minister’.
However clouds appear to be gathering over this mountainous dreamland.
South Tyrol is a sufferer of its personal success, particularly with vacationers. In 2022 there have been nearly eight million vacationer arrivals, whereas the native inhabitants is half one million. “I’ve been coming right here each winter for 20 years, and there are extra vacationers each time,” complains Angela, a retiree from a small city close to Venice. Her 30-year-old son is along with her and he nods. The booming variety of guests, a lot of them high-income, has contributed to creating the province the costliest in Italy.
“In South Tyrol salaries are Italian, however costs are Swiss,” says Paul Köllensperger, chief of the centre-left Staff Okay motion, an area opposition get together. “I ponder why our province nonetheless stands out in Italy’s high quality of life rankings. The reality is that you simply want some huge cash to reside effectively right here; somebody with a mean wage does not reside effectively right here, lives badly — or does not reside right here in any respect.”
Grocery buying is dearer right here than in different elements of northern Italy. Rents are very excessive and home costs are sky-high.
In response to Oskar Peterlini, a college professor and a former native politician, “there are lots of jobs right here, however staff can not discover reasonably priced lodging. Motels ought to be taxed and rents de-taxed, however the pro-tourism foyer could be very sturdy right here”. Peterlini admits that tourism has “modified life for the higher on this as soon as poor province… my mom starved in the course of the warfare. South Tyrol has finished a great job with tourism, possibly too good”.
There’s a college in Bolzano, however excessive rents deter many younger individuals from learning there. Alexander von Walther, president of the South Tyrolean College Affiliation, is from Bolzano however research regulation in Innsbruck, within the Austrian Tyrol, some 120km north.
“I’ve heard of individuals in Bolzano asking as a lot as €700€ or €800 for a room in a flat, costs similar to these in Munich or Milan,” he says. “Innsbruck is cheaper than Bolzano, so it was simple for me to search out lodging there. Lots of those that go to check in Innsbruck do not come again right here to South Tyrol after commencement as a result of they’re petrified of the housing drawback”.
In response to the Chamber of Commerce of Bolzano, 1,000 individuals beneath the age of 30 to migrate yearly, primarily to Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It is a rising pattern that has elevated fivefold within the final decade; in accordance with the identical supply, solely 15-20 % of emigrants return, on common after 4 years.
New social divides, new alliances
“In Bolzano, we lack docs, nurses, engineers, but additionally public transport drivers, and so on.,” says Stefano Fattor, councillor for mobility and housing of the municipality, and a member of the centre-left Democratic Occasion. “The housing emergency is our primary drawback, not just for the poor but additionally for these with excessive salaries”. The brand new divide, he factors out, is not between lessons, however between those that personal a house and people who don’t.
Extra housing ought to be constructed, however this isn’t occurring. In response to Fattor, “Bolzano has a really excessive inhabitants density: 102,000 individuals reside in 7.8km2. Town is surrounded by 12km2 of intensive agricultural land, however you’ll be able to’t construct there, it is a taboo for provincial politicians who’ve turned farmers into an untouchable caste”.
Tourism will not be the one pillar of the South Tyrolean financial system: agriculture is crucial. It brings votes and creates wealth, exporting apples, cheese and tremendous wines throughout Europe.
However South Tyrol can also be a sufferer of its personal success in one other sense. Till 40 years in the past there have been tensions between the German-speaking majority and the Italian-speaking minority, there have been even acts of terrorism: South Tyroleans had not forgotten the abuses towards German audio system in the course of the fascist dictatorship.
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At the moment, relations between the 2 linguistic teams have improved rather a lot, and the Christian Democrat get together that governs the province, the Südtiroler Volkspartei, which received the final native elections however lacks the seats to control alone, is contemplating forming the brand new native authorities not solely with the rightwing populist League get together of Matteo Salvini, but additionally with Brothers of Italy, the ultra-nationalist get together led by prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
For a lot of of their fellow residents, an alliance with a celebration inheritor to the post-fascist Italian Social Motion is unacceptable and (very quiet) rallies are going down within the tidy squares of Bolzano. Researchers, college professors and ladies’s teams are writing outraged open letters.
“Companies, particularly farmers, like a really rightwing native authorities as a result of they are often fairly certain that their privileges and pursuits won’t be touched. However those that come from the world of tradition and activism, or who care about sustainability, are rebelling,” says Köllensperger.
Maybe South Tyrol will not be such a dreamland in any case.
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