In December 2009, the Italian regional party Südtiroler Volkspartei (SVP) proposed to give dual Austrian-Italian citizenship to German speakers resident in the Northern Italian province of South Tyrol/Alto Adige, historically home to a predominantly German-speaking population. Austria has in the past acted as a protector of this linguistic minority and has been involved in negotiating an 1992 autonomy pact for South Tyrol that resolved an international dispute between Austria and Italy. Austria has so far, however, never offered Austrian citizenship to German speaking South Tyroleans.

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On December 14th, the new citizenship bill was drastically amended by the Constitutional Committee of the Chamber of Deputies following proposals by Isabella Bertolini, an MP of Berlusconi’s party Popolo delle Libertà (see). The most interesting aspect is that the Read More …