No province in Italy appears to be richer and luckier than South Tyrol. It has the very best per capita earnings and the bottom unemployment fee. The standard of life is excessive, because of 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 appears to be like like the proper setting for a remake of The Sound of Music. Italian, American English, French, Chinese language and Swiss German may be heard on the streets. The resorts are full, there are queues to get into eating places.
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The well-known mountain group of the Dolomites belongs to 5 Italian provinces, together with South Tyrol (Photograph: Domenico Convertini)
After all, if German is spoken in South Tyrol it’s not simply because vacationers from Zurich and Munich prefer to eat the native strudel or go snowboarding within the Gardena valley: greater than two-thirds of the inhabitants communicate German as their mom tongue as a result of the province was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire till the tip of the First World Battle. As we speak, solely the capital Bolzano and some different cities have an Italian-speaking majority.
Based on a neighborhood joke, South Tyrol is ideal as a result of you may eat in addition to in Italy however the administration may 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 virtually eight million vacationer arrivals, whereas the native inhabitants is half 1,000,000. ”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 together with her and he nods. The booming variety of guests, lots 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 Workforce Okay motion, a neighborhood opposition celebration. ”I’m wondering why our province nonetheless stands out in Italy’s high quality of life rankings. The reality is that you just want some huge cash to reside effectively right here; somebody with a mean wage would not reside effectively right here, lives badly — or would not reside right here in any respect.”
Grocery procuring is dearer right here than in different elements of northern Italy. Rents are very excessive and home costs are sky-high.
Based on Oskar Peterlini, a college professor and a former native politician, ”there are numerous jobs right here, however staff can’t discover reasonably priced lodging. Accommodations needs to be taxed and rents de-taxed, however the pro-tourism foyer may 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 through the conflict. South Tyrol has performed a very good job with tourism, perhaps too good”.
There’s a college in Bolzano, however excessive rents deter many younger folks 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 corresponding to these in Munich or Milan,” he says. ”Innsbruck is cheaper than Bolzano, so it was simple for me to search out lodging there. A lot of those that go to review in Innsbruck do not come again right here to South Tyrol after commencement as a result of they’re frightened of the housing drawback”.
Based on the Chamber of Commerce of Bolzano, 1,000 folks below the age of 30 to migrate yearly, primarily to Austria, Germany and Switzerland. This can be a rising development that has elevated fivefold within the final decade; based on the identical supply, solely 15-20 % of emigrants return, on common after 4 years.
New social divides, new alliances
”In Bolzano, we lack medical doctors, nurses, engineers, but in addition 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 Get together. ”The housing emergency is our primary drawback, not just for the poor but in addition for these with excessive salaries”. The brand new divide, he factors out, is now not between courses, however between those that personal a house and people who don’t.
Extra housing needs to be constructed, however this isn’t taking place. Based on Fattor, ”Bolzano has a really excessive inhabitants density: 102,000 folks reside in 7.8km2. Town is surrounded by 12km2 of intensive agricultural land, however you may’t construct there, it is a taboo for provincial politicians who’ve turned farmers into an untouchable caste”.
Tourism just isn’t the one pillar of the South Tyrolean financial system: agriculture is important. It brings votes and creates wealth, exporting apples, cheese and high-quality wines throughout Europe.
However South Tyrol can 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 through the fascist dictatorship.
As we speak, relations between the 2 linguistic teams have improved quite a bit, and the Christian Democrat celebration that governs the province, the Südtiroler Volkspartei, which gained 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 celebration of Matteo Salvini, but in addition with Brothers of Italy, the ultra-nationalist celebration 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 happening within the tidy squares of Bolzano. Researchers, college professors and girls’s teams are writing outraged open letters.
”Companies, particularly farmers, like a really rightwing native authorities as a result of they are often fairly positive 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 just isn’t such a dreamland in spite of everything.